Union claims hospital treats too many patients

Saturday, Sept. 6, 1997 | 9:15 a.m.

The Service Employees International Union, seeking hospital recognition as bargaining agent for employees, said patients routinely are put on gurneys in the hallways when emergency room beds are full.

The practice results in inadequate staffing, equipment and privacy, according to the report released Thursday.

Mitch Mitchell, the hospital's president and chief executive officer, acknowledged that sometimes patients continue to be admitted when all emergency room beds are full.

"This is not something that is individual or unique to Columbia Sunrise," he said. "We're underbedded in the (Las Vegas) Valley."

But the administrator denied that the practice endangers patient care, adding that the SEIU report is "misleading all the way through" - starting with a cover photograph showing patients on gurneys in a hallway at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

State hospital regulators said they have received no complaints of inappropriate care provided to emergency room patients placed on gurneys in hallways.

But Gina Hendershot, a registered nurse who has worked at the hospital for nine years, said patients with conditions as serious as heart attacks and strokes may receive care in the hallways.

"It gets critical at times," said the 42-year-old nurse, who is involved in union-organizing activities.

Union official Dorothee Benz added, "We believe that the vast majority of employees in the hospital support the union as the only viable solution to the patient-care crisis."

The hospital's administration has said it supports the right of employees to vote in the union in a secret-ballot election. Union officials counter that the administration could use an election and subsequent appeals process as a delay tactic that would stall contract negotiations for years.

About 60 complaints were filed in three years against the hospital, roughly twice the number against other area hospitals. About 10 percent of the complaints were substantiated, a percentage consistent with other hospitals, regulators said.

With 688 beds, Columbia Sunrise is the largest hospital in Las Vegas. The other six facilities range in size from 198 to 510 beds.

The most serious substantiated complaint involved the improper discharge of a patient who lacked medical insurance. The hospital faced the loss of its Medicare contract, but kept the contract after a second investigation showed that uninsured patients were receiving emergency room care. The hospital denied it had behaved improperly.

The union's allegations come at a time when Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. - the nation's largest for-profit hospital company -- is under federal investigation over allegations it has inflated its billings to Medicare.

Columbia acquired Sunrise Hospital in 1993.