Page 2: Nurses get organized
From Vane’s desk … Nurses at Northern Inyo Hospital (NIH) in Bishop are working to create a new union to give nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants greater say in determining their level of staffing, and to create “a contract that will give us a little more financial stability,” said the union organizing committee spokesperson Christine Hanley in an interview with The Sheet.
Hanley said the union also hopes to create a contract “where if the Hospital fires someone, they have to say why, and prove it was a just firing.” She said that currently, the Hospital can fire an employee without having to show cause.
Although the union has “been coming for a long time,” Hanley said it would seek to address concerns arising specifically out of new NIH CEO Victoria Alexander-Lane’s strategic plan.
Alexander-Lane presented her new policies to the Bishop City Council in July, 2014, noting that NIH would have to change the way it does business to avoid driving away customers with its high prices.
Alexander-Lane announced that the Hospital would be freezing some wages and changing the increment of raises from five to two percent, dependent on favorable evaluations, among other changes to personnel policy.
Perhaps the most controversial change was the Hospital’s adoption of a “zero pay” policy, wherein if an employee was sent home for lack of patients, they would receive no wage for the hours of work they missed, but would accrue vacation time and time required to receive benefits.
The state-mandated nurse to patient ratio is 1 to 5.
Hanley argued that the zero pay policy has several downsides. “We realize that the Hospital needs flexibility, but sometimes there’s a lot of work to do, and they’re still talking about sending people home,” she said. That work includes increasingly complex documentation requirements. Sometimes, she added, a patient might be confused and climbing out of bed, and require the help of multiple nurses at a time.
The new policy also means financial uncertainty for Hospital personnel, who may not know from week to week or month to month how many hours they will be working.
“We’ve managed to keep patients safe, but if we had a system that was a little more predictable, it might not be as much of a struggle to get the flexibility we need,” Hanley said. “We want more of a voice in how changes in staffing are going to happen. We’re not asking for a raise, but for predictability in our income.”
NIH Administrators and Board members have received news of the union with ambivalence.
“We’ve got a lot of great nurses that really care about the patients, and they do a wonderful job, but we also have to run the Hospital and stay afloat,” said NIH Board President M.C. Hubbard. “We want to be here ten years from now.”
Nevertheless, Hubbard said she’s operating under the assumption that the union will go through. According to Hubbard and Hanley, authorization cards requesting a union signed by nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants are currently under the review of the State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).
“They have said we have a majority of nurses who have signed it,” Hanley said.
However, the Hospital is now arguing that nurse practitioners and physician assistants cannot be included in the union.
Hanley said she viewed this as a tactic to change the number of those in the voting pool in favor of the union. “But as far as we can tell, we still have a majority,” she said.
Should nurse practitioners and physician assistants be barred from the union at this stage, “We’re absolutely committed to having them in it in the long run,” she added.
NIH’s Strategic Communications offered no comment on whether or not nurse practitioners and physician assistants will be allowed in the union, saying only, “There are many uncertainties at this point and it would not be appropriate for us to surmise about future conditions.”
PERB is now in the process of determining who should and should not be included in the union, and whether the union will then have a majority in favor.
According to Hubbard, this determination process could take a month or more.
Should the union go through, negotiating teams representing the union and Hospital administration will work toward an agreed upon contract. “Negotiations can take a long time, and sometimes an agreement is not reached,” Hubbard said. “But I’m not going into this with that in mind.”
CEO Alexander-Lane could not be reached directly for comment, but did offer an official statement via press release this week. “Northern Inyo Hospital acknowledges the organization of a bargaining unit of registered nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants.
“The process of formalizing a union may take time. During that time, NIH wants the people it serves to know that its goals have not changed. First and foremost, NIH wants to provide the best care possible to the people of Bishop and the surrounding areas.
“NIH will continue to find ways to make local health care affordable,” the press release stated.
Alexander-Lane’s own comments in the press release addressed a special NIH Board meeting last Tuesday, Feb. 10, in which nursing staff, physicians, and community members commented on the union, and expressed concerns about the current personnel policy.
“We are always open to those wishing to voice their opinions and speak passionately about their concerns,“ said Alexander-Lane. “There’s great potential here at Northern Inyo Hospital. We have an excellent staff, a beautiful building and state-of-the-art equipment. We remain committed to improving community health and wellness in a caring and compassionate manner.”
“These are exciting times, and I think that we’re going to be absolutely fine,” said Hubbard. “Everybody’s really got the same goal, and that’s the patients and patient care.”
Mono County Resident Wins $1.4 Million with Mono Market Ticket
On Wednesday, Feb. 11, a Mono Count resident bought a ticket at Mono Market in Lee Vining and matched five out of six numbers in the Powerball lottery. The resident won a little over $1.4 million, according to Mono Market Manager Chris Lizza. Although the resident currently wishes to remain anonymous, he said they will become part of the public record.
The winning numbers were 25, 11, 54, 13, and 39. The Powerball number was 19, and the multiplier was 3. Three tickets purchased that day won the Powerball jackpot of $564.1 million, according to the Powerball website, although none of the recipients were in California.
And finally … the Town of Mammoth apparently dismissed its Finance Director Dan Izzo last Friday. Town Manager Dan Holler could not be reached for comment.
Izzo was hired June, 2014.
Following his dismissal, a former employee of Izzo’s within the Finance Department, Maureen McClain, went on a Facebook rant lashing out against a former colleague, Susan Cash, and Town Manager Dan Holler among others. Izzo was not mentioned in the post. I have no idea as to whether or not the Izzo dismissal precipitated the McClain post. I do know my personal dealings with McClain were trying and testy (mostly because the Department had dropped the ball and there was a period where they were literally a year behind in paying my invoices – Heaven forbid I complain about it – so I take her rant with a boulder-sized grain of salt.
