Montefiore, the Bronx's largest hospital system has a staffing issue that is triggering overcrowding and even keeping patients in hallways—"hallway patients." This staffing issue is directly undermining quality patient care, affecting some of the most vulnerable patients—infants, children, and seniors. Admissions and outpatient visits are way up, but staffing has not kept pace.

Conditions at Montefiore Hospital include:

Understaffing in the Pediatric ICU, Neo-natal ICU and Emergency Departments;
Patients waiting to be admitted to a room lying on stretchers in hallways;
Elderly patients unable to walk to bathrooms lying in hallway beds without call buttons;
Patients regularly receiving medical treatment with little or no privacy.
Management at the hospital says there is no money in the budget for additional staffing, even though executive salaries are high and spending continues on hospital expansion and renovations.

Nurses called on Montefiore to meet with community and NYSNA leaders to help solve its staffing problems.

Standing side by side with elected officials and patient advocates, nurses from Montefiore spoke on their experiences with patients being left on stretchers in hallways, emergency departments being at times overrun, Pediatric ICU and Neonatal ICU units lacking adequate staffing levels, and patients regularly receiving medical treatment with little or no privacy.

"I have been a NICU nurse at Montefiore for two years," said Marjorie León, RN, BSN at Montefiore Hospital. "I work in a unit that has a 35-bed capacity, but a times has 40-45 patients because we accept sick babies from across four different integrated facilities and around the Northeast Region. Although Montefiore is willing to accept all of these critical infants, they have not increased our staffing to accommodate for the growing number of patients. We have told hospital management that we need more staff, but their answer to us is 'do more overtime.' This is not an overtime issue; this is a staffing issue. Montefiore Hospital needs more nurses."

"I have been working as a nurse in the children's unit for eight years," said Xenia Greene, RN at Montefiore Hospital. "There is never an empty bed in my 26-bed unit, and our nurses are struggling to provide the quality care that patients deserve. Nurses should not be considered a luxury item. We are a necessity as the gate keepers to safe patient care. Montefiore management is turning their backs on the Bronx's patients by not addressing the staffing issue."

"I have experienced first hand on all shifts the staffing issues at Montefiore Hospital. It is clear there are staffing problems that are getting worse," said Karine Raymond, RN MSN chairperson of Weiler bargaining unit and BOD member. "No more evident than in our Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units. Our most fragile members of the community come for care, and we are struggling to provide them with the quality care they deserve. For months we have spoken and pleaded with hospital management while documenting these staffing limitations, but we have been ignored. It is time Montefiore's nursing leadership and upper management respond to our concerns and provide the nurses and auxiliary staff needed to care for the Bronx community."

All proceeds from the bake sale will be donated to Mocho Village, a Bronx-based organization focused on the healthcare and educational needs of under-served communities in the Bronx and in Jamaica.

The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) represents 40,000 members in New York State. We are New York's largest union and professional association for registered nurses. For more information, please visit our website at www.nysna.org.

SOURCE New York State Nurses Association
http://www.nysna.org

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