Desert Regional Medical Center nurses plan to picket Tuesday
Nurses at Desert Regional Medical Center will picket tomorrow to demand that Tenet Health address what union officials call chronic issues that jeopardize patient care in the neonatal and emergency intensive care units.
The picketing will take place from 5:30 to 7:15 p.m. Tuesday at Desert Regional Medical Center, 1150 North Indian Canyon Drive, according to a statement from the California Nurses Association. In that time, registered nurses will demand that patient safety concerns be addressed.
"It is impossible for us to give the highest quality of care to these infants if we are caring for too many babies. Right now that is the situation on a great majority of shifts,'' nurse Deb Edwards, who works in the NICU, said in a statement. ``We have taken our concerns to the California Department of Public Health and asked them to investigate, so we can address these concerns in a way that benefits our patients."
The association claims that non-intensive care units are being used to house intensive care patients through a practice that started as a "quick fix" at the height of the pandemic and that short-staffing continues to be a problem, making it difficult to provide optimal care.
"Tenet needs to invest in a new ICU instead of housing patients in whatever space they can cut out of other units,'' nurse Rachel Garcia, who works in the ICU, said in a statement. "These other areas are not appropriate for our patients. These rooms lack the equipment, such as multiple suction regulators, we need to care for our patients."
Hospital officials, however, said they have been hiring more staff and investing in capital improvements.
"We are disappointed by the California Nurses Association (CAN) inflammatory tactics and misleading statements provided to the Desert Healthcare District and the public,'' Desert Care Network spokesman Richard Ramhoff told City News Service.
"Desert Regional maintains licensure through the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), and is accredited to provide services to Medi-Cal and Medicare patients,'' he said. "All our licensures, accreditations and contracts are in place and maintained in good standing.''
According to Desert Care Network and DRMC CEO Michele Finney, 287 registered nurses and 335 support staff have been hired this year through October due to recruitment and retention resources afforded to the hospital through Tenet Healthcare. She added that Tenet has also invested in growing its physicians and staff in an effort to increase access to care.
Finney said in a letter to the association that since their lease began in 1997, Tenet Healthcare has invested more than $339 million in capital improvements in the hospital and that while other health systems reduced expenditure during the pandemic it funded over $43 million in capital projects at the hospital.
