Nurses at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and County-USC have refused to take on more patients than allowed and called union representatives to back them up. Some arguments with supervisors grew so heated that police were called.
In the last two months, the union has been distributing a leaflet explaining the state's nurse-staffing law and pledging to defend nurses who tell their superiors the situation is unsafe.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday November 04, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 53 words Type of Material: Correction
Nurse shortage -- An article in the Oct. 26 California section said temporary nurses who work at hospitals run by Los Angeles County often are paid $70 an hour. That is the amount the county pays independent nursing services that in turn pay the nurses about $40 an hour plus benefits and expenses.
Since then, about 20 nurses have been suspended for their defiance, and union representatives said they planned to fight those suspensions.
County officials and union representatives have met more than 50 times to reach a new agreement. At an impasse over how much to raise nurses' salaries, the two parties will meet Nov. 4 with a state mediator.
"I think it's harmful to not have a contract," Garthwaite said. "And I think, from where I sit, we should be meeting nights and weekends until we get one approved."
He said he is worried that the shortage will cause current county nurses more stress, which may cause more nurses to leave.
"At some point, you would also have a decrease in the number of patients you're seeing, which backs up into the private sector," he added.
State health officials visit hospitals when they have specific information about staffing shortages, and inspected a county hospital several weeks ago after they heard complaints about deficiencies.
Jacqueline Lincer, a local district manager for the state Department of Health Services, said that the report has not been completed but that inspectors told the county at the end of the visit they did not find deficiencies that day.
Los Angeles County is not alone in its struggle to meet the state's mandate, said Jan Emerson, a spokeswoman for the California Healthcare Assn.
About 85% of the hospitals throughout the state do not meet the nurse-to-patient ratios. On average they had 15% fewer nurses than needed to fully meet the ratio rules.
At Los Angeles County's public hospitals, the vacancy rate is 26%.
Nurses who attended a rally Monday outside of County-USC stood firm in their belief that taking on more patients risked the quality of care they could give.
Jorge Trujillo, 44, a psychiatric nurse at Harbor-UCLA, said he is regularly asked to take on nine patients when the state allows him to take only six. After refusing to see more patients Sept. 12, he received a letter suspending him, he said.
"If we are understaffed, as we are now, a patient's first sign of agitation may not be noticed and as a result, the patient may disrupt the entire ward, agitating other patients," he said.
Catherine Lefkowitz, a pediatric nurse at County-USC, said that she and her fellow nurses shut down a ward about three weeks ago.
All of the nurses were assigned four patients, the state maximum, and the emergency room wanted to transfer in 15 patients, she said. The nurses refused.
"They should hire more nurses," she said.
"They're always staffing to the bottom line, saying they didn't anticipate emergencies or anticipate a nurse calling in sick."
