Diability Benefits Booklet for Northside Pros Now Online

Professionals at Northside Medical Center can now access a copy of the Mutual of Omaha long-term disability benefits booklet by clicking on the associated link.

Highlands Ratifies New and Improved Contract

SEIU District 1199 members at Highlands Regional Medical Center voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to ratify a new contract, three weeks before the current contract expires.

The contract features 3% raises next month and in 2010, with a 4% raise next year -- as well as new 3% step increases after 32 and 35 years and differential increases for evening, midnight and 12-hour shifts. Call pay will be increased by $1.50 over three years, and some employees will see raises as high as 16% because of ten upgraded job classifications.

Workers with 20 years seniority will see increased sick leave totaling 150 days, and workers in the business office are now included in the recognition language of the collective bargaining agreement. Unused sick leave will now be donated back to employees, and disciplinary suspensions were reduced from 18 months to one year. Congratulations to Highlands members and Joyce Gibson for this extraordinary victory!

SEIU Calls For Comprehensive Hospital Staffing Standards

SEIU District 1199 has been working with Ohio legislators to craft a comprehensive hospital staffing bill that mandates appropriate levels of professional, technical and support staff -- along with RN-to-patient ratios.

Such ratios would be a more comprehensive approach to protecting hospital patient safety than the one promoted by the California Nurses Association (CNA). The legislation proposed by the CNA's "NNOC" would set minimum registered nurse-to-patient ratios similar to those that took effect in California in January 2004.

Although those ratios have gone a long way toward improving patient safety and nurse recruitment and retention in California, they also led to deep cuts in hospital support staff -- requiring registered nurses to pick up many of the tasks normally performed by other members of the health care team.

"The California experience shows that RN-to-patient ratios alone do not guarantee adequate staffing in hospitals," said SEIU 1199 President Becky Williams. "California nurses say that understaffing is still their biggest obstacle to providing high quality care."

An analysis of California hospital data just released by SEIU 1199 shows that while RN staffing increased 6.1% between 2003 and 2006, non-RN staffing declined. Hardest hit were licensed vocational nurses and nurse aides, the direct caregivers on whom registered nurses rely most heavily for help. Click here to see the fact sheet.

"Nurse-to-patient ratios in California came at an unexpectedly high price, and the cost was the safety of our patients," said Kathy Hughes, an SEIU member and registered nurse in California. "Cuts in ancillary staff have increased our workloads and made it harder to provide safe and high-quality care. Nurses all over our state are saying nurse-to-patient ratios alone don’t work."

Hospital Division - Who We Are

We are 5,500 hospital workers – consisting of registered nurses, LPNs, technical workers, skilled maintenance and support staff -- working at 15 hospitals in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky.

We are part of SEIU District 1199, the largest and fastest growing healthcare union in our three states, with more than 27,000 members in healthcare, social service and the public sector.

The Hospital Division of SEIU District 1199 is part of SEIU Healthcare, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing healthcare union. SEIU Healthcare is comprised of more than one million healthcare workers across the United States, including more than 400,000 nurses and other hospital staff.

In today’s world of healthcare, the financial bottom line has become more important than patients’ needs. Understaffing makes it hard to provide the highest quality care. Stagnating wages and costly health benefits lower standards for hospital workers everywhere. Now more than ever, healthcare workers need a strong voice to advocate on behalf of our patients and ourselves. That is why we, as a healthcare union, are leading the way to organize all hospital workers into one union and fix our broken healthcare system.