Nurses Win Pay Hikes in Salary ‘War’

Gripped by a worsening nursing shortage, several private hospitals in Los Angeles County are dramatically increasing salaries for nurses, triggering what one hospital executive called “wage warfare.”

The latest round was fired Thursday by the 358-bed Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier, where officials announced that staff nurses are now eligible for a maximum annual salary of $56,742. New nursing graduates will be hired at a minimum of $31,470 a year, up from $25,709, hospital officials said.

“I’m going after those nurses,” Presbyterian’s executive director Richard Skillman declared Thursday.

‘Standing Alone’

Only a few weeks ago, the 998-bed Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach announced in a newspaper advertisement that it was “standing alone” in offering nurses an “unparalleled $30,000 to $50,000 pay plan.”

“The war is on now,” said Christine Pappas, the medical center’s vice president for nursing.

At the Hospital Council of Southern California, which represents many hospitals in the area, an official said he knows of two other private hospitals that have “made a move of this magnitude” since the Long Beach Medical Center’s announcement several weeks ago.

The nursing shortage in Southern California has become so acute, said council spokesman David Langness, that hospitals are being forced to offer “unprecedented nursing salaries.”

The financially strapped health-care industry cannot afford a “pernicious wage spiral” in nurses salaries, he said. But in the long run, many agree, rising wages will make the profession more attractive to new candidates.

The federal government has forecast a shortage of 1.2 million nurses by the year 2,000.

Across the nation, the hospital vacancy rate for registered nurses has jumped from 6.3% in 1985 to 13.6% in 1986. “And the estimate for 1987 is as high as 17%,” said Carol Grimaldi, spokeswoman for the American Nursing Assn.

At the nonprofit Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, nurses’ salaries this week were hiked an average 21% over last year, officials said. The hospital has a nursing staff of about 400 and a job vacancy rate of about 7%. Nine of the 23 existing vacancies are in the critical care center. Last year, 138 nurses were hired to replace those who had left.

Maximum Flexibility

In addition to raising salaries, hospital officials said, they are offering nurses maximum flexibility in the hours they work, as well as restructuring their jobs to give them more authority and time to care for patients. Adverse working conditions have been cited as major factors contributing to the nursing shortage.

Skillman said his move to raise nursing salaries will cost the hospital about $1.3 million a year and will force him to make cuts in other areas.

“We’re betting the farm on this,” he said. “It’s a real gamble. All of us in the hospital field are in a race trying to provide quality care to patients with diminished resources, and hoping to survive.”

While now operating in the black, he said, if no changes are made in the hospital’s operations and federal health-care reimbursement rates continue to lag, the hospital will likely suffer a $4-million loss next year.

To cut expenses, two of the hospital’s six vice presidents have recently been let go.

Hospital spokeswoman Maria Adams said that by raising nurses’ salaries, “We are now the highest paying hospital for registered nurses in our area.” She said the new minimum pay level offered by Presbyterian is 25% higher than the average minimum offered by 177 Los Angeles-area hospitals last fall.

About 150 nurses at Presbyterian will be eligible to earn the maximum $56,742 salary and about 12 are expected to receive it within the next 18 months, said Kathy Luciano, a vice president. A critical-care nurse working nights would be an example of a nurse who could earn this much, she added.

At the nonprofit Memorial Medical Center in Long Beach, which employs about 1,500 nurses, Pappas pointed out that the hospital’s $50,000 maximum salary is “a baseline” that excludes 10% and 20% bonuses for working evenings and nights. She said the medical center has raised nursing salaries an average of 25% during the last year and has long held its nursing staff in “high regard.”