Anaheim Regional Medical Center nurses’ union wins pay boost, security upgrades
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Registered nurses who work at the Anaheim Regional Medical Center voted to ratify their first-ever labor contract with the hospital on Wednesday night, an agreement they claim will improve patient care.
As negotiations carried on, safety remained a top priority for nurses represented by SEIU Local 121RN. The union in April held an info picket outside of the hospital to draw attention to such issues.
In the past, nurses and their aides have screened people for weapons and drugs at the hospital’s emergency room entrance.
While nurses did not gain the walk-through metal detectors they pushed for in bargaining, the hospital has agreed to staff security guards with metal detector wands at different entry points within six months to a year.
Security staff will also take over bag searches and provide identification for visitors.
“That’s something we’re not responsible for anymore,” said Liza Lorenzo, a telemetry nurse who has worked at the hospital for the past 15 years. “We have more time to do bedside care, as opposed to going through people’s belongings, which was not safe for us, as well.”
When reached, a spokesperson for AHMC Healthcare, the company that owns the hospital, declined to comment on the contract.
Weapons screening, higher staffing levels and equipment upgrades round out a list of demands made by Anaheim Regional Medical Center nurses at an info picket and at the bargaining table.
The security changes come before Assembly Bill 2975, which the union advocated for and requires hospitals throughout the state to have weapons detection screening policies by March 2027.
Nurses also won a minimum 19% pay raise over the four years of the contract.
The salary boost comes with additional measures to ensure there are four nurses for every patient at a specialty unit, a ratio mandated by state law. For telemetry units, the nurse-patient ratio is five-to-one.
During the pandemic, Lorenzo claimed that the hospital stretched its nurse-to-patient ratios beyond their limits but nurses now have protections in place to hold management accountable.
“We made sure that we have a resource nurse for every five nurses or more,” said Lorenzo, who helped negotiate the contract. “If there’s five nurses in the unit, we will have a resource nurse dedicated for that unit alone. Obviously, better staffing leads to faster response, reduces medical errors and prevents staff burnout.”
Nurses are hopeful that the boosted salaries and ratio protections will go a long way toward addressing what they called inadequate staffing at the hospital.
The union also proposed forming a pandemic task force following the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic that overwhelmed hospitals in Orange County. The contract guarantees that nurses will have enough personal protective equipment for three months while following U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
“We’re more prepared in the case of another pandemic, as opposed to just scrambling,” Lorenzo said.
As nurses also complained about broken-down MRI machines and the lack of running hot water at times, the hospital has also pledged to make timely repairs to medical equipment while addressing other maintenance issues.
Lorenzo beamed with pride when speaking about critical provisions of the newly ratified contract, which arrived in less than one year’s time since safety concerns first prompted nurses to unionize in August.
“Our efforts have paid off,” she said. “Now we have our first contract. This is not only for us, but also for our patients and the community.”
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