Tuesday, July 13, 2004 | 10:58 a.m.
The majority of union-represented nurses at Desert Springs and Valley hospitals voted Monday in favor of renogiated union contracts that increase their wages as much as 22 percent over two years some cases.
About 440 of the 450 nurses who voted Monday at Desert Springs and Valley voted in favor of the contracts. The other 450 nurses did not vote.
The Service Employees International Union Local 1107 represents about 900 nurses at those hospitals, which are owned by King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services Inc. The two parties have been negotiating since late February and reached a tentative agreement with the help of a national mediator on Friday.
Under the terms of the two-year contracts, the nurses will receive between an 11 percent and 21 percent increase in pay over two years, depending on their current wages.
For example, medical-surgical nurses at Desert Springs and Valley will earn between $22.01 per hour to $31.38 this year, said Jane McAlevey, executive director of the SEIU and chief negotiator for both contracts.
The pay increase raised the standard for union-represented nurses' wages in the Las Vegas Valley, said June Carter, an operating room nurse at Desert Springs.
Universal Health's contract surpasses the strides made last August by SEIU nurses at HCA Inc.-owned Sunrise Hospital. In 2004, Sunrise's medical-surgical nurses earn between $21.58 per hour to $30.40 per hour, the SEIU said.
"We're trying to change our wage scale in the valley," said Barbara Ruscingno, intensive care nurse at Desert Springs. "We're changing the market so nurses will come to Las Vegas and stay here."
The new contracts also increase the number of raises nurses receive for years of service to the company. Nurses received their final raises after 10 years of service unless they moved to another hospital, but the contracts now ensure an additional raise after 15 years of service and a final raise after 20 years.
The nurses will receive $5 per hour for on-call pay, which is double the current rate of $2.50 per hour.
Universal Health's nurses at Desert Springs and Valley will also receive fully paid family health care through health maintenance organization plans.
Clark County-owned University Medical Center is the only other union-represented hospital with fully paid health benefits, McAlevey said.
The contracts also establish a standing committee that will be made up of nurses and management to address patient safety and work place concerns.
The contracts ensure nurses will be reimbursed 75 percent for their continuing education courses, up to $2,400 for full-time nurses and $1,200 for part-time nurses, said Michele Stefan, operating room nurse at Valley.
The nurses were also requesting higher employer contributions for their 401(k) plans, but that request was not part of the approved contracts.
The new contract will improve patient care because nurses will be more inclined to stay in their hospital jobs, creating continuity of care and reducing the hospitals' nursing shortage, McAlevey said.
She said nurses "hop from hospital to hospital" to improve their benefits because hospitals lack retention efforts.
Hospital officials say they agree that the contracts should help retain nurses and cut costs in the long run.
Mike Tymczyn, spokesman for the Valley Health System -- Desert Springs, Valley, Summerlin and Spring Valley hospitals -- said the increase in benefits would not likely be a "huge hit" financially to Universal Health.
"For the long-term, we know that this contract is one of the best in the city, if not in the region, and it is our hope that we will be able to eliminate registry nurses and traveling nurses, which are very expensive," he said.
Currently, Las Vegas Valley hospitals rely on traveling and registry nurses, which are paid premium wages per day that they work. Those nurses do not receive health or retirement benefits through the hospitals.
Michele Nichols, chief nurse executive for Valley Hospital, said in a statement that the new contract will "play a large part in our effort to remain viable and competitive."
"Our ability to deliver care to Las Vegas on a long-term basis was dependent upon reaching this agreement," Nichols said.
Desert Springs Chief Nurse Executive Marcy Jorgenson said the contract addresses several "key hospital objectives for RNs."
Universal Health's other two Las Vegas Valley hospitals, Summerlin and Spring Valley, are not unionized. The SEIU also represents nurses at Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Inc.'s Sunrise Hospital and Clark County-owned University Medical Center. The union is attempting to unionize the nurses at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, which are owned by San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West.
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