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NYU Langone’s Brooklyn hospital is breaking the law by flouting minimum staff-patient ratios for its shifts, the union representing nurses charged Thursday — with the health care system accusing the union of spreading false information in response.
“Patients at NYU’s Brooklyn hospital have suffered because the hospital’s leadership consistently violates the law that sets nurse-to-patient ratios necessary for safe and appropriate care,” said Anne Goldman, head of the Federation of Nurses/United Federation of Teachers union, which represents roughly 1,000 nurses at NYU Langone Hospital- Brooklyn.
New York State’s 212 hospitals must assign at least one nurse for every two patients in critical care units under a new rule approved in June by the state Health Department.
The higher nurse-to-patient ratio edict for critical care patients is one component of the new “Safe Staffing Act” approved by the legislature in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Federation of Nurses/UFT said over the past week that it documented more than 30 violations of state law and publicly agreed-upon staffing levels with the state Health Department. The violations stemmed from more than 2,000 staffing complaints documented by the union over the past 18 months.
The understaffing at the NYU Langone facility in Sunset Park has led to an increase in patient falls, a rise in the number of “bedsore” complaints and high nurse turnover, with one unit losing nearly half its new hires within six months, said Federation of Nurses/UFT said.
According to official complaints filed by the nurses, during a six-day stretch in June 2023 when NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn’s Medical Intensive Care unit failed to meet the state staffing levels of one nurse for every two critically ill patients on four out of six days.
During a two-week period in June, the hospital’s Surgical/Neuro Intensive Care unit failed to meet the one nurse for two critically ill patients standard on four out of six days, the union alleges.
The union also complained that the hospital violated staffing ratio requirements spelled out in their labor contract.
NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn is on track in 2023 to have 495 falls by the end of the year, which would amount to a 41% increase from 2022, the union, citing hospital metrics. Unless conditions change, it’s gearing up to have 22 of these falls result in serious injuries, a 49% increase from 2022.
“NYU Langone Health and NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn have a dangerously warped set of priorities,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew.
“They saw profits of $1.6 billion during a pandemic. They will spend millions to boost administrators’ salaries, but they won’t take steps to ensure every unit has the proper staffing required by law, and that all patients get the care they are entitled to.”
According to the records of the UFT Nurse chapter, the Brooklyn hospital hired 108 new nurses between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2023, while 71 nurses retired or resigned. The Med/Surgical division alone hired 47 nurses between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2023, and 22 have already resigned.
But NYU Langone, in a strongly worded statement, accused the union of scaremongering and “misrepresenting” its Brooklyn hospital.
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“Delivering the best patient care with the utmost safety and quality remains our top priority in Brooklyn and across NYU Langone Health. We are the only Leapfrog Safety A-rated and Magnet-designated hospital in Brooklyn, which are external validators of our top quality and safety outcomes. We deeply value the exceptional care that our nurses provide to their patients each day,” spokesman Steve Ritea said.
NYU Langone-Brooklyn, working with the union, was one of the first hospitals to establish staffing ratios in 2016, well before the current state minimum staffing requirements made it a common practice, he said.
“We engaged in extensive mediation with UFT over several months in an effort to address their short-staffing grievances. When UFT leadership was not satisfied, they stepped away from the mediation process and instead chose to make their case in the media,” he continued. “Now they are acting irresponsibly by providing an inaccurate portrait of patient care, completely misrepresenting our institution and our valued nurses who provide quality care.”
The hospital claims the union’s turnover figures are outdated and misleading, noting that nurse hiring is outpacing turnover.
“Their allegation that we are not following existing regulations is patently false. The number of falls, including those with injuries as well as pressure injuries projected in Brooklyn, are actually a fraction of what UFT alleges and has decreased from prior years. We have a robust system of capturing and quickly addressing each of these incidents when they occur,” the hospital said.
“Sharing patently false information with the public to advance their own agenda is pernicious, harmful to patients and disingenuous to the entire healthcare community,” it added.
It’s just the latest skirmish NYU-Langone is involved in. Th system recently sued medical rival Northwell Health for allegedly copying its purple color scheme in advertisements, a charge Northwell denied.
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