Perkins disputes claim he disrupted hospital

Michelle Swafford and Ed Koch

Friday, Sept. 16, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins says the allegation that he endangered patients at Desert Springs Hospital on Thursday while supporting nurses in a labor dispute with the facility is "ludicrous."

Perkins said a statement issued by the hospital after he left with 17 nurses who were sent home for wearing union-related buttons, was "a complete fabrication clearly intended to embarrass me while hiding their own violation of individual rights."

Perkins, a Henderson Democrat, is expected to announce his candidacy for governor next week.

An agreement was reached late Thursday between the local nurses' union and Desert Springs and Valley hospitals that nurses won't be sent home for wearing pro-union buttons, but that management still discourages it.

Valley Hospital, which like Desert Springs, is a part of the Valley Health System, also sent 17 nurses home after they refused to remove buttons that say: "I'm On Spring Valley Watch" to show support for an Oct. 20 Service Employees International Union Local 1107 election at Spring Valley Hospital, another member of the Valley Health System.

Perkins said he had been invited to Desert Springs by nurses, angry that employees this week were sent home for wearing union buttons.

"I didn't think we had an incident (Thursday) until I read their statement," Perkins said today.

"At 6:30 a.m. I went in with a bunch of nurses and was there an hour and a half. I told them I did not want to be in an area I was not supposed to be in. We were not being disruptive and I did not even see any patients."

The hospital disagrees.

In a statement, Desert Springs officials said they were "disappointed and concerned" that Perkins "actually barged onto a patient floor trying to make a completely inappropriate political statement in a critical care unit."

That type of action was considered "grandstanding (that) not only endangers patients, but inflames a situation, which he should have been working responsibly to defuse," Desert Springs spokeswoman Lori Harris said in the statement.

"That is ludicrous," said Perkins, who also is a deputy chief in the Henderson Police Department." I took an oath to protect people, which I do on a day-to-day basis. And over the years I have saved lives. The claim that I somehow put a patient in harm's way angers me."

Perkins said that after the nurses were ordered to go home he attempted to talk to a hospital executive about how the buttons were "protected speech," but did not argue with the decision to send the nurses home. Still, he said, he felt the decision made no sense.

"There is a nursing shortage in the valley," Perkins said. "Why send so many high quality nurses home for wearing a button?"

Perkins said he and the nurses left the building via a back exit and that neither he nor they were escorted from the hospital.

As for the button issue, the Valley Health System, which also includes Summerlin hospital, said in a statement that it will "continue to ask its Desert Springs and Valley Hospital employees not to wear buttons in support of the upcoming Spring Valley Hospital election.

"However, at this time, we will not require nurses to go home if they disregard this request."

The union and the Valley Health System are working through back pay issues for nurses who were sent home and agreed to restore nurses' right to wear the buttons without management interference, SEIU Local 1107 executive director Jane McAlevey said today.

The hospitals and the nurses agreed that the nurses would be allowed to wear new buttons that read: "We love our patients, we love our doctors, and we love Spring Valley nurses."

Fourteen Valley operating room nurses, one nursery nurse and two surgical intensive care unit nurses were told to go home after they refused to remove their buttons on Thursday.

Seven Desert Springs nurses said they were told to clock out Wednesday after they refused to remove their union buttons.

Desert Springs officials issued statements Wednesday and Thursday that said its nurses were sent home because the buttons violate dress code policies and are disruptive to patient care.

The SEIU has filed 10 charges with the National Labor Relations Board's Las Vegas office against Desert Springs regarding the buttons issue.