Chestnut Hill Hospital workers say persisting staffing shortages put patient care at risk

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Registered nurses and health care technicians marched back and forth with signs and posters Wednesday afternoon in front of Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia as they called for safer staffing levels and better benefits.

It’s been nearly one year since staff voted to form a union with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP). Contract negotiations are ongoing with the hospital’s new owners, Temple Health, which took over in 2023.

Nurses say staffing shortages that preceded Temple’s ownership and have now continued are preventing health care workers from properly caring for their patients and maintaining a safe environment for staff.

“We have too many patients per nurse,” said registered nurse Alyssa Afflerback. “We’re understaffed and we’re stretching ourselves so thin every day when we come in here.”

Afflerback said staffing issues have become exacerbated by patient overflow coming from Temple Health’s other hospitals and locations in the city.

“There was definitely an influx of people in our ER, which means there’s an influx of people on the floors, and there aren’t any more nurses,” she said. “A lot of people have left because of short staffing, because we don’t feel safe all the time.”

In a statement, Temple Health officials said all its hospitals and health campuses have more nurses today than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the health system continues to “recruit ambitiously” to fill open positions at Chestnut Hill “with nurses who can provide world class patient care.”

Health system leadership also criticized PASNAP’s decision to negotiate a contract “in the media rather than at the bargaining table.”

“We continue to work hard to bring improvement to Chestnut Hill Hospital,” Temple said in a statement. “We believe we would all be better served as would the employees of Chestnut Hill Hospital if we spend our energies negotiating between us rather than negotiating in the media.”

The two parties have been negotiating for about eight months. In many cases, it takes more than one year for a new union to reach their first contract deal with owners and management, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

But hospital workers said they remain frustrated on what they called little progress in reaching agreements on wages, nurse-to-patient ratios and other job protections.

“Most of us were excited two years ago as Temple took over our hospital,” said Barbara Strain, an ICU registered nurse and hospital employee of 20 years. “We were promised wonderful things. Unfortunately, soon after, most employees noted things changed for the worse. Nurse-patient ratios had increased, threatening the well-being of our patients.”

Temple Health acquired the 148-bed acute care hospital from Tower Health in partnership with Redeemer Health and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in a $28 million sale.

The hospital under Tower Health’s ownership had accumulated significant debt, which was largely resolved by the sale.