by: Chloe HumbertPosted on:

Geisinger Healthcare System to nurses: “Work sick!”

Geisinger to patients: “You’re getting covid and any other infectious diseases the nurses come to work with!”

This is a letter to the editor is a letter published in my local newspaper from state lawmakers to the CEO of Geisinger Healthcare System. Maybe they’ll have more luck than I did when I wrote asking for reasonable accommodation. They wrote back blathering about how they care about “patient experience” – but seemed unconcerned about patient safety. 

Times-Tribune (Scranton Pennsylvania) Regional legislators concerned about health care negotiations – Mar 13, 2024

In addition, the healthcare professionals at the Geisinger Community Medical Center campus are rightfully frustrated that the hospital zeroed out the Extended PTO time (employees’ sick time) for every member of the new bargaining units. Further, the proposal to eliminate all sick time for RNs and nurse anesthetists as well is an unacceptable way to treat these dedicated professionals.

Here’s a pdf of the letter: 2024-0313-times-tribuneGEISINGERrepsletter.pdf

From the newspaper article:

Newspaper clipping of article that was on page one below the fold in the Scranton Pennsylvania local newspaper The Times-Tribune, on Wednesday March 13th, e-edition of the print addition – the clipping is from the article continued on page A5 – in this image a portion is circled in red marker that reads: The union and GCMC workers have blasted the hospital for zeroing out accrued sick time for members of new bargaining units who don’t yet have contracts. The hospital also proposed eliminating sick time for registered nurses and nurse anesthetists, PASNAP claims. Eliminating sick time is underlined with the red marker.

I also posted this on Tumblr.

ZEROED OUT SICK TIME and proposed ELIMINATING SICK TIME FOR RNs!!

Personal Note: I live in Scranton and I can’t go to any other hospital besides this one because I have Geisinger insurance that has no other hospital in my county that’s in my insurance plan. Of course another hospital in Scranton was scandalized in The Washington Post in 2020 because that hospital had nurses, including a pregnant nurse, potentially exposing babies in the NICU after shifts in a covid ward!