web1_Red-Cross.jpg

Red Cross issues emergency call for blood donors

web1_Coughlin-Wrestling-700-1-.jpg

WVC wrestling: Coughlin beats Crestwood for win No. 700

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Unionized nurses at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and its corporate owner Community Health Systems ended 12 hours of talks Thursday with an agreement to meet again next week in an effort to avoid a planned one-day strike.</p><p>The sessions for Monday and Tuesday offered the Wyoming Valley Nurses Association some hope their members would not have to walk a picket line on Feb. 13, the strike date set by the union this week.</p><p>Registered Nurse Stanley Wielgopolski was at the East Mountain Inn in Plains Township where the two sides met. He viewed it as a &#8220;good sign&#8221; that the hospital added more bargaining dates.</p><p>In the past, the Tennessee-based owner of the hospital has not scheduled back-to-back dates, Wielgopolski pointed out.</p><p>&#8220;We are going to work on Monday and the nurses are going to strive to reach an agreement with the hospital as diligently as we can for the benefit of our patients. We&#8217;re hopeful (the hospital) will work just as hard to do the same,&#8221; Wielgopolski said.</p><p>The hospital issued a statement that said, &#8220;We remain committed to reaching an agreement that is acceptable to both the union and the hospital.&#8221;</p><p>There have been more than 20 scheduled sessions since December 2017 and one strike last May with staffing the central issue for the union. The nurses have demanded the for-profit hospital fill vacant positions to cut overtime they&#8217;re required to work and ensure proper care for patients.</p><p>The union&#8217;s claims of shortstaffing were corroborated last year by a Pennsylvania Department of Health report. The department conducted a surprise inspection based on documents submitted by the union describing hospital conditions. The hospital stated it has corrected the deficiencies listed by the state.</p><p><strong>Nurses address council</strong></p><p>The union, an affiliate of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, continued to seek public support for a new contract. Jamie Fleming, a registered nurse, addressed Wilkes-Barre city council at its public meeting Thursday.</p><p>&#8220;Today, the hospital&#8217;s website had 102 posted positions. That&#8217;s 102 careers that we want CHS to bring to our community, to our city,&#8221; said Fleming, of Pittston.</p><p>Each nurse is responsible for six to seven patients per eight-hour shift, Fleming said, adding some have up to 12 or 13 patients.</p><p>On top of that, Fleming said, the nurses are mandated to work double shifts and required to make hourly rounds.</p><p>She listed the typical duties of a nurse in that time period:</p><p>&#8220;So if there&#8217;s 60 minutes in an hour and you have six patients, that&#8217;s 10 minutes per patient. That means make sure the patient can go to the bathroom. If they&#8217;re incontinent, make sure they&#8217;re changed. Give them all their meds. Answer any questions. Call the doctors. Make sure their orders are proper. Get them ready for surgery. Have them turned every two hours to prevent bed sores. Send them to the nursing home if that&#8217;s where they&#8217;re supposed to go, in 60 minutes.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;That doesn&#8217;t include time for you to sit down and chart, take a minute for yourself. Our nurses are burnt out.&#8221;</p><p>Councilman Tony Brooks along with the other council members offered his support for the nurses. But he raised the possibility of a bigger problem for the city if the hospital is sold.</p><p>CHS, a publicly traded company, has been struggling financially and selling hospitals across the country to lessen its debt load. It operates six hospitals in Northeastern Pennsylvania under the regional Commonwealth Health System.</p><p>Brooks said he sees &#8220;the writing on the wall&#8221; that Commonwealth Health might be sold because of the number of advertisements University of Pittsburgh Medical College has been running locally.</p><p>&#8220;If that happens &#8230; we go from a for-profit to a non-profit . That impacts our budget seriously and I believe it might be something towards $300,000 to $500,000 a year that we would lose in tax revenue,&#8221; Brooks said.</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL121218Nurses1.cmyk_-2.jpeg">
<div class="neCaption">Wielgopolski </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL121218Nurses1.cmyk_-2.jpeg</photo0><caption0>Wielgopolski </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>RN points to &#8216;good sign&#8217; after 12-hour session</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

WB General nurses, hospital agree to continue negotiations with strike date looming