As the nurses’ strike enters its fourth week, health care coverage has run out for Montefiore nurses, leaving them no choice but to apply for COBRA, Medicare or Medicaid.
Montefiore nurses receive free healthcare as part of their benefits package but the hospital is cutting off their access unless they return back to work.
Management has not proposed any permanent changes or cuts. But as the strike drags on, nurses said they feel less and less optimistic about seeing their demands met — in particular for lower staffing ratios to prevent overcrowding in the emergency room, which they say is a persistent and potentially deadly problem.
The Bronx Times spoke to a group of emergency department nurses outside the Moses Campus on Feb. 3 who said that while the bitter cold temperatures have improved, progress with management remains stalled.
Nelson Bertran said he believes management is biding its time while threatening to permanently replace them. “We keep on hitting a stone wall,” he said.
The loss of free healthcare while the nurses are out of work is a hard pill for them to swallow. Emergency department nurse Erika Perrotta said her COBRA coverage would cost about $1,000 per month — as a single person with no children. “I can’t imagine how much it would be for a family,” she said.
Despite the cost and hassle, even nurses with significant health needs have not crossed the picket line, Perrotta said.
The group of nurses said nothing will stop them from fighting for what patients need.
They provided several examples of dangerous overcrowding in the emergency room, leading to frequent incidents where patients lash out at each other and at their medical providers.
Conflicts are especially common in the “enhanced observation” area, which can hold elderly patients with dementia, people high on drugs and those with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental health conditions, all within arm’s reach of each other, said nurse Nelson Bertran.
He and others pointed to an instance where a nurse had no choice but to stand trapped between stretchers with her hands up as a patient punched her face and upper body. The hitting only stopped when the patient tripped over one of the stretchers — and the nurse had to use her own sick time while recovering, they said.
Nurses said that the room has been so full of patients on stretchers that the doorway is blocked, creating a fire hazard. Patients have been urinated on by other patients and get into physical confrontations with each other because they’re agitated from being crammed in, they said.
In these conditions, patients often have to undress or use a urinal behind only a held-up sheet or even discuss medical information with others nearby, simply due to the lack of space. “There is no HIPAA [law]. There is no privacy,” Perrotta said.
While NYSNA nurses at Montefiore, NewYork-Presbyterian and Mount Sinai remain on strike, their roles are filled by temporary nurses who can be licensed in any state or Canada, due to an executive order from Governor Kathy Hochul that created this temporary exception.
The order was originally issued on Jan. 9, just before the strike, and has since been extended twice. Travel nurses are paid as much as $10,000 per week, according to the union.
Until a contract deal is reached, Montefiore nurses said they’re crossing their fingers that no major medical needs arise between now and then and that hospital executives will see their point of view.
“We have no faith in management,” Perrotta said.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
