WNSA and your officers are disappointed and astonished that the CEO, Ketul Patel, has rejected the staffing plan that was submitted by the staffing committee. The hospital is required by law, to work jointly with staff nurses to develop plans. Your staffing committee members work tirelessly to create these plans and also spend hours each month reviewing the many ADOs that have been submitted by you all. The CEO is required to provide an explanation for rejection of the plan but his letter did not explain his rationale for rejecting the plan nor did it provide for an alternative plan. In Mr. Patel’s letter he mentions the need to “find new and innovative nurse staffing solutions” yet is moving forward without any solutions in place.

We understand the hospital is now unilaterally implementing an alternate plan which by reports from nurses, appears to be the substandard ratios that nurses have been working under for months. It is unclear at this time what ratios are being adopted as the hospital did not provide this information in the CEO’s letter as required.

Your officers and WSNA will be responding to Mr. Patel and will share that communication when it is available. It will include the 558 ADOs that have been submitted between Jan 1, 2022 to Jan 1, 2023. Those ADOs continuously describe nurse’s belief they have been unable to provide the standard of care to their patients, ie. turning patients when indicated, delivering medication and other care on time, etc.

If you face an unsafe staffing situation, please continue to fill out ADO’s. ADO’s continue to serve to put management on notice that they have unsafe staffing conditions. ADOs assist WSNA with our legislative efforts to improve staffing laws in the state. ADOs demonstrate the need for the Department of Health to increase their resources to deal with staffing complaints and compliance to the existing law. ADOs are discoverable in a lawsuit so they may prove useful if there is a poor patient outcome and nurse is sued.

WSNA also strongly recommends that each nurse facing a dangerous situation, consider taking the following action(s):

File a Department of Health complaint if you feel unsafe conditions exist or harm has occurred – See DOH complaint filing documentfor instructions.

File a complaint with Labor and Industries if you feel unsafe (pt violence, no lifting equipment/resources), deprived of rest and/or meal breaks, mandatory overtime -See the L&I info to go page for more information.

File a complaint related to patient safety concerns with the Joint Commission - https://www.jointcommission.org/resources/patient-safety-topics/report-a-patient-safety-concern-or-complaint/.

In solidarity, your local unit officers Jane Hill-Littlejohn, Arlene Alba, Sam Asencio
WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey, JD, BSN, RN, sfrey@wsna.org