Sunrise nurse defends hospital

Art Nadler

Thursday, Sept. 25, 1997 | 10:45 a.m.

Following the recent firing of an emergency room nurse and allegations of under staffing, a Sunrise Hospital nursing manager has decided to go public with her views.

Alice Conroy, a registered nurse and manager of the Columbia Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center Emergency Department, in a quarter-page advertisement that ran Wednesday in both the Las Vegas SUN and Review-Journal stated, in part:

"We are committed to offering the highest quality of care to every patient who presents for treatment. ... We want the community of Las Vegas to know that when you come to Columbia Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center's Emergency Department, you will not only be seen in a timely manner, but by a staff committed to giving you their best."

Conroy, who has been employed at Sunrise Hospital six years, wouldn't elaborate on why she wrote and signed the letter advertisement. She said hospital administrators didn't ask her to write it.

Ann Lynch, vice president of community relations at Sunrise, said the hospital paid for the advertisement, and that nurses in the ER were taking up a collection to reimburse the hospital.

"I think her (Conroy's) people have been very disturbed by a recent NBC news program (critical of the ER)," Lynch said. "The people who have worked here and saved a lot of lives over the years felt insulted and hurt."

Dorothee Benz, a Service Employees International Union spokeswoman, presented another viewpoint.

"It's lovely rhetoric, but where's the beef," she said of the ad. "We have documented instances of under staffing and equipment shortages. The Sunrise staff are some the best in the county. The problem is management doesn't give them the staff (numbers) they need."

The SEIU earlier this month issued its own report claiming that patients seeking care at Sunrise's ER were sometimes placed on gurneys in the hall, where staffing was not sufficient to take care of them.

The union claims that Sunrise's ER doesn't "divert" when its 34 beds are full.

Area hospital ERs are supposed to let ambulance services know, via computer divert signals, when they can no longer take patients. Lynch said Sunrise does this, but when walk-in patients arrive, they don't turn them away and sometimes set up gurneys in the hall.

"There's a nurse assigned to each patient," Lynch said of hallway care. "We don't put patients who need monitoring (such as on heart machines) in the hallway."

SEIU, in its report, stated that two hospitals nearby Sunrise Hospital don't place patients in hallway, except under extreme circumstances.

Lynch said all hospitals put patients in the hall at times and monitor them.

Conroy's letter comes on the heels of last week's firing of ER nurse Gina Hendershot, who refused to take a mandatory drug and alcohol screening test at Sunrise Hospital. She said she would submit to one by an independent laboratory.

Hendershot, who had been at Sunrise Hospital eight years, is active in SEIU's three-year attempt to unionize hospital healthcare workers. She claims she was fired for her union activities.

"I was not written up, and no one said to me why I was fired," Hendershot said. "I asked for copies of my personnel file. I feel I was fired for union activities."

Jerald Mitchell, president and chief executive officer, in a written statement issued two days after Hendershot's termination, stated:

"Gina Hendershot...was terminated from employment...as a result of her refusal to submit to a mandatory drug and alcohol screening test during her shift in the Emergency Department...

"Two of her supervisors reported that they had reasonable suspicion, based on Hendershot's demeanor and actions, to believe that she may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. ... Hendershot refused to submit to the screening and signed a written refusal to that effect..."

Hendershot said she was never told, either in writing or verbally, that supervisors had suspected she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. She thought she was terminated for making three minor grammatical errors on a patient's chart.

Lynch said Hendershot was not fired for filing grammatical errors, and insisted it was for her suspicious demeanor observed by "several employees and a supervisor."

Hendershot has filed an unfair labor practice grievance and is currently unemployed.

"I want my job back at Sunrise," Hendershot said. "I'm loyal to Sunrise -- not Columbia (Corp.)"

Hendershot was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago. Her disease is in remission, but she takes medication and pain pills on a daily basis.