Year-round Health Means Winter Work

3 Arrested Following Drug Raids

By BRIAN MALINA and CECE TODD; Times Leader Staff Writers
 Wednesday, January 21, 1998 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1A 





EDWARDSVILLE- If Wyoming Valley Health Care System's 800 registered nurses
go on strike Feb. 2, they will be replaced. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Health care system officials said Tuesday they plan to bring in several
hundred nurses from across the country to do the work of striking nurses. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A representative of the nurses union called the plan "unconscionable." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Rick Lewis, a representative of PSEA Health Care, said using replacement
workers would be a disaster. "Management is acting very foolishly." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The union notified the health care system late Monday that the nurses plan
to strike at 6:30 a.m. Feb. 2. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The 10-day notice required by federal law was given after a 14-hour
negotiating session failed to produce a tentative contract covering registered
nurses at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, Nesbitt Memorial Hospital in Kingston
and the system's surgical center. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Both sides will be at the bargaining table at 10 a.m. today at the East
Mountain Inn in Plains Township. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 During a press conference Tuesday at the TPS Medical Pavilion, acting
President and Chief Executive Officer Patricia Finan said patients should
expect no change in services. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Both a nurse and health care system officials predict about 100 of the 800
registered nurses would cross a picket line. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Finan would release few details about the system's contingency plan. She
also refused to specify how many replacement nurses would be hired or where
they would come from. Still, she asked the community to trust the health care
system's plan. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "We have no plans to cancel anything. That's our intent," Finan said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But Bernadette Gately, president of the nurses union, said she would "never
trust my family with a system that had strike-breakers in it" because
replacement nurses are often ill-trained. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "All of our nurses who work in critical-care areas are specialty-trained,
and many of them are nationally certified," she said. "It still takes even
experienced nurses a minimum of two weeks to learn our policies." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Faced with the prospects of a strike, at least one physician was making
contingency plans of his own. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Dr. Eugene Kaczorowski, an obstetrician, said some of his patients who have
upcoming deliveries or surgeries are starting to ask what will happen to them.
If the nurses strike, he said, he will take his patients to Mercy Hospital or
Penn State Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Kaczorowski has 10 to 15 pregnant patients due to give birth in February
and about 20 surgeries scheduled for that month. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The nurses, he said, "deserve much better. They're always doing for the
patient. They work non-stop. I don't blame the nurses for going on strike
because they care about the patient and patient care." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Officials at other hospitals said they could handle the influx if some
patients chose or their physicians chose not to use Nesbitt or General during
a strike. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Obviously, we stand ready to support the community just as we did during
the flooding of two years ago, with carefully thought-out contingency plans,
even though we are pretty much at full capacity," said Ray Mazzarella,
spokesman for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in
Wilkes-Barre. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "But we earnestly hope they find an acceptable means to settle this
dispute." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Dave Jolley, spokesman for Penn State Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical
Center, said, "I imagine we would just follow procedures (for a rise in
admissions)." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Mercy Hospital officials could not be reached for comment. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Attorney Roger Gilson, chief negotiator for the system, said it has worked
on a plan to bring in replacement nurses for about two months. "The lion's
share of our time has been spent on negotiations, but it would be
irresponsible for the hospital" not to have a backup plan. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the state Health Department, said Wyoming
Valley Health Care already has contacted the department to let state officials
know a strike is possible. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 If there were to be a strike, the Health Department would send a
representative to Luzerne County to make sure the hospitals are operating
within licensing requirements. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 It is the health care system's responsibility to make sure replacement
nurses are licensed to practice in Pennsylvania. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 McGarvey said someone within the Health Department likely is trying to
verify certification on replacement nurses now. But late Tuesday he was unable
to determine for certain if that was being done. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Jim Roberts, spokesman for Wyoming Valley Health Care, said all of the
replacement nurses are licensed in Pennsylvania "with appropriate
certification in appropriate areas." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Finan called the nurses' decision to file a strike notice "regrettable and
premature." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Gilson said the union should have waited until it received the health care
system's final offer, which he promised he would provide at today's
negotiating session. The system could not give its final offer Monday because
it needed time to develop a response to the nurses' offer, he said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The nurses say health insurance is the main holdup in the negotiations.
Linda Benesky, a nurse within the system, said the nurses have offered to pay
5 percent of their health premiums but the system is asking for 20 percent. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The nurses also want the hospital to drop Health America coverage in favor
of Blue Cross/Blue Shield. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Tricia Pahoski, spokeswoman for Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania,
said the monthly premium for a family covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield Major
Medical is about $465. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The cost to a nurse paying 20 percent would be about $93 a month. That
would drop to about $23.25 a month if the nurses paid 5 percent. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Other issues that must be resolved include wages, union membership and
mandatory overtime: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Wages: Finan said the system has offered a three-year contract that would
include a new wage scale based on seniority, increased wage minimums and
guaranteed minimum rate increases for nurses who exceed the scale based on
performance. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Union membership dues: The system does not want union dues to be mandatory;
the union is asking that all registered nurses pay dues or fees as a condition
of employment, she said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Mandatory overtime: The system wants to impose eight-hour shifts with
mandatory overtime. Nurses work three 16-hour or four 12-hour shifts a week,
she said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 If a settlement is not reached today, Gately, the union president, said
nurses probably will not vote on the system's offer for several days. She
predicted the vote would take place a couple of days before the scheduled
strike. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Alf Nelson, director of PSEA Health Care, said the Wyoming Valley Nurses
Association is the third of its bargaining units to issue a strike notice
since PSEA Health Care formed in 1993. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In two previous cases, both contracts were settled before nurses went on
the picket line. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "What we hope happens is that the hospital administration will re-evaluate
their position on bargaining. Time is running out and there has to be some
changes," Nelson said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 TIMES LEADER/CLARK VAN ORDEN &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Patricia Finan, acting president and chief executive officer of the Wyoming
Valley Health Care System, said the system will bring in several hundred
n

Hospitals Strike Back **see For The Record 1/22/98 Replacements Will Be Called In If The Nurses Walk, Say Health Care System Officials