Nursing Wage Plot Alleged in Lawsuit

Nurses backed by the biggest U.S. healthcare union Tuesday filed four class-action lawsuits against some of the biggest U.S. hospitals, including No. 1 chain HCA Inc., claiming that they conspired to depress wages amid a national shortage of nurses.

The lawsuits, which also target the biggest U.S. Catholic hospital system, Ascension Health, allege that the hospitals regularly discussed nurses’ wages in meetings, over the telephone and in written surveys in an effort to coordinate and suppress pay.

The suits, filed in federal courts in Chicago; Memphis, Tenn.; Albany, N.Y.; and San Antonio seek back compensation and legal costs totaling “hundreds of millions of dollars” under federal antitrust laws.

“We have [human resources] employees calling their counterparts at competitor hospitals, asking for and receiving detailed and current information about the wages these hospitals are paying their nurses,” said Daniel Small, a partner at the Washington law firm representing the plaintiffs, who seek class-action status. “The hospitals have reached an understanding that they will use this information not to compete.”

Information from the Service Employees International Union, which organizes nurses and other healthcare workers, led to the investigations and the lawsuits.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs interviewed dozens of current and former hospital employees in each market, including some at the executive level, in preparing the suits that were filed against about 20 unionized and non-unionized hospital systems in the four cities.

Spokesmen for the American Hospital Assn., which represents most U.S. hospitals, were not immediately available for comment.

A spokesman for Nashville-based HCA, which runs 180 hospitals and was named in the Texas lawsuit, called the suit frivolous.

“This is one of four frivolous money-wasting lawsuits apparently generated by a union and a law firm designed to create publicity in markets where unions are trying to get membership,” HCA’s Jeff Prescott said.

Other major hospital systems named in the suits include Catholic Health East, University of Chicago hospitals and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare and privately held Vanguard Health Systems.

Demand for full-time registered nurses exceeds supply by nearly 170,000 this year, according to the American Hospital Assn. That shortfall is expected to widen to more than 1 million by 2020, the trade group estimates.

Wage increases for nurses have been insignificant during the decade-long shortage, experts said. Wages stagnated in 2003 and fell 6.4% in 2004, leading to a decline in nurses working at hospitals, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

Experts disagree on how to resolve the nursing shortage. Some say higher wages are the key, while others note that heavy workloads, lack of respect and understaffed hospitals make the career unattractive.