Union warns of under-staffing in infant critical care unit at Tacoma Mary Bridge
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- WSNA said the number of babies in the NICU is up dramatically since January.
- Nurses say staffing runs below agreed standards for current load.
- Hospital says it is addressing the surge via recruiting efforts, travel nurses.
Some nurses at Tacoma’s Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital are warning of continued staffing issues among those treating the facility’s smallest and most vulnerable patients.
At issue is stafflng for the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.
In a news release issued this week, nurses represented by the Washington State Nurses Association contend that despite an earlier agreement reached with the union to maintain “certain minimum staffing standards in the NICU, nurses are regularly working without enough staff, and their patient loads are going up.”
WSNA noted, “The number of babies being cared for in Mary Bridge’s NICU is up 50% since January.”
The release added, “While nurses are doing everything they can to make sure the babies in the NICU are getting the care they need, they are at a breaking point, and MultiCare, Mary Bridge’s corporate parent, isn’t doing enough, fast enough to address the crisis.”
In response to questions from The News Tribune, the hospital acknowledged staffing issues.
“Staffing remains a challenge following the rapid patient census increase that the Mary Bridge NICU saw early this year,” the hospital stated. “Since then, Mary Bridge has focused significantly on increased hiring to support this shift, which includes contracting traveler nurses until permanent staff can be recruited, hired and oriented.”
The nurses contend that those efforts haven’t been enough, with the release noting, “An overflow area that used to be used intermittently is now filled with babies every day.”
The hospital operates the only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit in southwest Washington, treating babies born prematurely or with medical complications.
WSNA represents more than 1,100 registered nurses at Tacoma General and Mary Bridge, and in January an informational picket was held amid bargaining talks that also noted the NICU patient to staff ratios, among other issues.
The hospital and those represented by the union later reached terms for the latest contract, ratified in February with new staffing rules included.
According to WSNA at the time, the new contract language for the NICU nurses “dictates that staffing will be based on patient acuity in alignment with the gold standard guidelines set by the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses, National Association of Neonatal Nurses and American Academy of Pediatrics.”
Now, the union contends that staffing is regularly below “agreed-to standards for the current patient load in the Mary Bridge NICU.”
In its June 23 release, WSNA stated, “Nurses who should be caring for one or two babies are regularly being assigned four – and double that when they cover for another nurse on break. On one shift, a nurse reported that two nurses had to cover for 11 patients, far over what is considered safe.”
The nurses are calling for MultiCare to increase hiring, including additional travel nurses to fill the current needs, and “offer better incentives for nurses to cover open shifts,” including raising hourly incentive pay, now capped at a rate “far below” time and a half, according to WSNA.
In its statement, the hospital told The News Tribune, “Mary Bridge Children’s continues its efforts to recruit and hire experienced nurses for its NICU as well as across its health network.”
While Mary Bridge recently celebrated the opening of its new $480 million campus, the NICU remains at Tacoma General. Hospital. According to information provided by the hospital to The News Tribune on June 23, the 70-bed NICU was not included in the new hospital campus’ final blueprint “because it did not fall under Mary Bridge’s license at that time.”
The hospital added that there are no current plans to move the NICU, as doing so “would reduce its proximity to Tacoma General’s Labor & Delivery unit.”
A pediatric ICU is at the new campus.
