Nurses Are Forced to Accept Pay Package : Health: Supervisors expect to save $1 million a year at county medical center. The union says cost is taking priority over patient care.

Ventura County officials, frustrated after nine months of negotiations, took the unprecedented step Tuesday of forcing county nurses to accept a new pay and benefits package.

Despite warnings that the contract changes could lead to “crisis staffing” and possibly a strike, the Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 to impose the compensation cuts on the 334 nurses at Ventura County Medical Center.

“Somehow we all, including you nurses, have to be able to recognize that we are in a difficult situation,” said Supervisor Maggie Kildee, citing pressures on the health-care industry to reduce costs. “Everyone of us is going to have to give something. What happens if we don’t have a hospital? What happens if we can’t afford to keep it open?”

But nurses argued bitterly that the county is putting financial considerations above patient safety.

“The county personnel office, plus the majority of the Board of Supervisors, has sent a clear message to the residents of Ventura County that money, not quality patient care, is their top priority,” said Tammy Gamblin of the California Nurses Assn., the union representing county nurses.

Leaders of the local union voted two weeks ago to authorize a strike, but will meet with the full membership before deciding whether to proceed with any labor action, Gamblin said. A temporary court order requires the union to give at least three days notice.

What they would really like, said county nurse Sheila Raives, is another chance at the negotiating table, if the county would be more flexible.

“This had quickly become a demand table with the county demanding a concession on every point,” said Raives, who served on the employee team.

“The nurses are on the front lines,” she added. “We, as the care givers, must be given a voice in the process.”

Ed McLean, the county’s assistant director of personnel, said the nurses had their chance to negotiate in the 25 meetings and three mediation sessions that have occurred since June.

The county could eventually reopen talks, but he added: “We’ve got to see significant movement from their last position. Otherwise, it’s still a stalemate.”

McLean said the county has never imposed an entire pay and benefits package on an employee group, but has forced single amendments to a contract. Even though the county has voted to impose a new pay package, the contract officially remains open to negotiation.

The new nurse’s package should save the county hospital $1 million a year as it cuts some employees’ pay by 9.3% by restructuring the pay rate, and gives administrators greater flexibility in laying off nurses and sending home unneeded workers.

Nurses say they are willing to work with the county, but found little willingness to negotiate. For instance, the employee team was willing to accept a plan to send home nurses when the wards were empty, but wanted limits, said Helen Horn, a union representative. The employee team also offered to accept a 3% cut in pay, Horn said.

“Everybody tries to paint this issue that it’s money,” Horn said. “If these nurses wanted to get rich, they wouldn’t work for the county.”

Instead, the employees who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting expressed concerns that cuts would leave them short-staffed and unable to care for patients.

Already, layoffs and shift changes have left holes in the system, they said. One nurse, Ana Bailey, described a night shift where she was left to monitor nine heart patients on her own. A nursing assistant was on duty with her, but could not read the electronic monitors.

During her shift, one of the patients began having trouble, forcing Bailey to leave her station and the other eight monitors. “It is not uncommon for the situation to be such at the county hospital,” Bailey added. “We’ve all been pushed to a degree that we feel it is unsafe for the patients.”

Hospital Administrator Pierre Durand denied that staffing problems result in unsafe practices at the hospital.

“We have standards set up by the state that we have to comply with,” he said. “We have more health-care providers on duty than any other hospital in the county.”

He called the supervisors courageous for voting to impose a pay package on the nurses. “All the adjustments we’re making are in line with what hospitals have to do to sustain a break-even position,” Durand said.

The lone vote against the measure came from Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, who said: “I just philosophically cannot vote to unilaterally adopt a contract.”