This article first appeared on the Boston Business Journal’s website.
Replacement nurses are costing Saint Vincent Hospital double what it pays salaried staff, with the system spending millions to keep the hospital operational as the strike stretches into its fourth week.
On March 8, 700 of the 800 union nurses at the hospital went on strike, protesting ongoing contract negotiations that have primarily been at odds over staffing standards.
Saint Vincent subsequently contracted with staffing company U.S. Nursing to hire 200 replacement nurses, according to a spokesman for the nurses union, the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA).
The hospital, which is owned by the Dallas-based for-profit Tenet Healthcare, has declined to specify how much it is spending to keep the facility operational with replacement staff. But hiring notices issued by U.S. Nursing detail that replacement staff are working for double the payment of typical salaried staff, and nearly double the amount of hours.
Emails from U.S. Nursing, obtained by MNA and shared with the Boston Business Journal, offered between $95-$110 an hour for replacement staff and guaranteed 60 hours of work the first week, followed by 48 hours in week two and three.
The amounts are double the rate of what the hospital normally pays for nurses. According to salary charts issued by the hospital, nurses currently earn between $31.13 to $64.15 an hour. According to MNA, the average nurse earns $55 an hour salary for a 35-hour work week.
The salaries, calculated over a three-week period, mean the hospital is spending between $3 million to $3.4 million on replacement staff salaries alone in the first three weeks.
According to MNA spokesman David Schildmeier, those costs are only part of what the hospital is spending on the strike, and doesn’t factor in transportation (both to bring nurses to the hospital and to shuttle them back and forth from hotels), lodging, meals, training, and licensing costs.
In the first five days of the strike alone, the hospital says it paid $5.4 million to a traveling nurse company to secure replacement staff. The hospital declined to specify total costs since, but said costs fluctuate week-to-week.
Replacement staffing is in addition to ancillary costs the hospital is incurring because of the strike, the MNA said, pointing to the $30,000 the hospital is spending on police detail daily.
“You could just work with us and address the staffing concerns and none of it would be incurred,” Schildmeier said.
Strikes at other hospitals in the state have similarly cost millions of dollars.
In 2016, Brigham and Women’s 3,300 union nurses narrowly avoided a one-day strike and four-day lockout. Yet the dispute took a $24 million toll. Preparations cost the Brigham $8 million, including plans to hire 700 replacement nurses with U.S. Nursing. The hospital lost another $16 million in revenue.
At Tufts Medical Center, a one-day strike and four-day lockout of the 1,200 union nurses at the Boston hospital in 2017 ultimately cost the hospital more than $6 million.
A one-day strike and three-day nurse lockout of the 200 union nurses at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in 2017 cost the hospital $1 million.
It is unclear how much of a financial burden the strike might put on the facility. Parent company Tenet Healthcare — which also oversees Metrowest Medical Center campuses in Framingham and Natick, Saint Vincent Hospital, and dozens of other hospitals in eight other states — reported a $2 billion operating income on $17.6 billion in revenue in 2020.
The most recent financials for Saint Vincent available through the state are from 2019. The hospital reported a $73.7 million surplus on $517.4 million in revenue.
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St. Vincent Hospital offered up to $110 per hour for replacement nurses during Worcester strike, emails show - MassLive.com
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