Framingham Union Nurses Have 'Dire' Concern About Patient Safety
FRAMINGHAM, MA — Nurses at Framingham Union Hospital have filed federal and state complaints in response to what they call a “growing and dire crisis in the safety of care for patients admitted to the facility.”
Across five rounds of complaints filed by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), the nurses say the safety of patients is being put at risk due to “deficiencies in staffing, hospital policies, allocation of technology that is resulting in dangerous delays in the administration of needed medications and treatments, preventable patient falls and other complications, including sentinel events.”
Sentinel events are described as “a patient safety event that results in death, permanent harm, or severe temporary harm,” the union said.
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Patch has contacted MetroWest Medical Center officials for comment.
Framingham Union, along with Leonard Morse in Worcester, is owned by Tenet Healthcare. The MNA represents nurses at 70 percent of the state’s hospitals, and claim those working in Tenet-run facilities see the worst conditions.
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Nurses are set to host a briefing on Monday morning outside of the Framingham hospital, stating that the moment is particularly timely as state officials dive into the circumstances at Steward Health Care hospitals.
Related: Protesters Want Massachusetts Governor To Save 2 Steward Hospitals Days Before They Close
“As the state and communities continue to focus on the impact on patients and families as a result of the unscrupulous behavior and practices implemented by Steward Healthcare, we are taking the opportunity on Monday to alert regulators and the public about another Dallas-based for-profit provider, Tenet Healthcare, whose facilities in our state have conditions for patients, particularly as regards to staffing and the safety of patient care that are significantly worse than what we have seen at Steward,” said Katie Murphy, RN and president of the MNA.
Murphy continued:
“As caregivers who are charged by law to serve as advocates for our patients, we are sounding the alarm once again outside a Tenet hospital in the hopes of triggering an aggressive response by our regulators to avoid, as we have seen with Steward, reading frontpage stories two years from now about a string of still more preventable patient deaths.”
The briefing will be livestreamed on the MNA Facebook page at 10:30 a.m.
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