Bucktail Medical Center Facing Staffing Shortage
SOUTH RENOVO – “If the hospital is to remain in the community, someone needs to work here.” So spoke Bucktail Medical Center administrator Tim Reeves as the medical center, a year and a half out of bankruptcy, is facing another grave challenge, a staffing shortage of significant proportion. Reeves’ comment is part of a position paper about the South Renovo medical center printed on page A4 in this week’s print Record.
The problem is a nursing shortage and the difficulty of the medical center to financially compete with larger health care facilities in the area. Reeves told The Record that large health systems have been aggressively recruiting nursing staff. In exchange for a 2-year commitment, he said, they are offering 25 to 50 percent higher wages than nurses make at Bucktail; plus they offer sign-on bonuses of $10,000, he said.
Because of Bucktail staffing requirements, including its nursing home wing, the South Renovo facility needs some 31 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nurses’ aides. Presently only about 15 are fulltime staff members at the medical center. Reeves said to fill the void, the center has to bring in outside, agency-provided nurses to provide federally-mandated staffing amounts. He said such outside agency staffing costs the facility two to three times the amount of the in-house employees, creating a financial hardship for the center. Reeves said there are approximately 105 employees at the medical center when there is no agency-provided staffing.
He told The Record, for the pay date of 11/22/2019 all employees received a 2.5percent pay increase, making a total increase of five percent since October 2018. He said the 2.5 percent increase will be $77,867.93 over the next year.
Reeves said the facility does not have the cash to raise the wages for everyone and pay for agency staff until more in-house staff is hired.
In addition to his position paper, Reeves also offered other points, including the need to work with the staff union in making changes:
1. With a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rating of 4 out of 5 stars, BMC is the highest rated nursing facility in the county.
2. Because much of the staff is represented by AFSCME, we must work with them to implement a plan to bring wages to a competitive level. I think we have a good working relationship with them and hope we can agree to a plan to increase wages for all employees over time
3. While some staff have left, many have stayed and they are doing everything they can to help
4. The financial progress we have made so far indicates we are taking the right steps, but it is a process.
5. For the pay date of 11/22/2019 all employees received a 2.5% pay increase, making a total increase of 5% since October 2018. This 2.5% increase will be $77,867.93 over the next year
6. The facility does not have the cash to raise the wages for everyone and pay for agency staff until we hire more staff.
7. We will propose a plan that we believe treats everyone as fairly as possible.
