Eagleville Hospital, seen here, now houses the Arcadia House, a new evidence-based treatment program for young men battling opioid and heroin addiction. (MediaNews Group File Photo)
The vote in favor of the new contract was unanimous.
The 78 nurses and technicians in Eagleville Hospital Nurses and Techs United ratified a three-year contract with the management at Eagleville Hospital, an addiction treatment center in Montgomery County
The vote in favor of the new contract, completed at 4 p.m. on Monday, was unanimous.
The contract represents a true and meaningful collaboration between caregivers and hospital management on behalf of the facility’s acutely sick and growing patient population and the staff who care for them, according to Kendra Barkasi, RN, the union president.
“We came together for an honest conversation on behalf of our patients,” Barkasi, a nine-year Eagleville veteran, said in a press release. “We met in the middle with our patients and patient care foremost in all of our minds.”
“I can unequivocally say, the concerns of bedside nurses were heard and taken into account and reflected in this contract,” said Rob Haines, RN, a 30-year Eagleville veteran and the union’s grievance chairman.
The union’s last negotiation, in 2021, ended on the eve of a strike. This time, the hospital offered to meet without outside counsel — an almost unheard-of approach — saving money that could be allocated toward patient care. The resulting contract, ratified two weeks before the previous contract’s expiration (also almost unheard-of), features critical quality of care improvements, including:
• Staffing guidelines for the hospital’s clinics and residential units (now about half of the facility), ensuring greater quality of care for patients and less stress and moral injury for caregivers.
• A new health and safety committee composed of management and staff to review incidents and improve safety on the campus.
• Strengthened weekend program for nurses. In order to recruit nurses into the weekend program with the goal of reducing weekend work work for regular employees, weekend nurses will receive an $8 per hour differential when working weekend shifts.
• Added training opportunities and certification pay for techs, incentivizing further education and certification. Techs will be able to become certified phlebotomists and CNAs. Phlebotomists will receive a $1/hr differential, and there will be a bonus for obtaining a CNA certification at the same level as nurses.
• Substantial and immediate market adjustments of five to 15 percent for nurses and techs to help attract and retain skilled caregivers to the hospital; plus, three new experience steps on the wage scale and a ratification bonus stipulating that all wage increases will be retroactive to July 1.
“I’m very, very happy about the contract,” Barkasi after the ratification. “But I’m thrilled for what the contract bodes for the future of our staff and for our patients here at Eagleville. This is how all contract negotiations should be, when the ultimate goal is patient care.”
“It all comes back to our patients,” said Haines. “Always.”
Eagleville Hospital Nurse and Techs United is an affiliate of PASNAP, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which represents more than 11,000 frontline RNs and healthcare professionals across Pennsylvania and was founded on the belief that patients receive the best care when clinical-care staff have a strong voice to advocate for both patients and themselves.
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