An independent arbitrator ruled that NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn understaffed nurses in its medical-surgical unit and exceeded the nurse-to-patient ratios required by a union contract, the United Federation of Teachers, which represents the nurses, announced Monday.
In a Dec. 1 decision, arbitrator Howard Edelman found that the medical-surgical unit at the Sunset Park hospital was understaffed 47 times from May to August 2022. The collective bargaining agreement between the union and Langone dictates that the unit may have no fewer than six nurses per 30 patients.
Edelman recommended that the hospital split the average nurses’ salary per shift — roughly $800 — among the medical-surgical nurses who picked up the extra work during those 47 understaffed shifts, Edelman ruled. The affected nurses would receive about $37,000 total as part of the arbitration award, which stemmed from grievances that the union filed against the hospital.
Anne Goldman, an ICU nurse and union leader, said the union is “ecstatic” over the decision.
“We know we’re right, we absolutely know what we’re doing is on behalf of patient care,” said Goldman, who heads the Federation of Nurses/UFT. “In labor, unlike in nursing, it takes a long time to collect the data, to go through a process and we’re just beginning to get to the point of that recognition and that ability. So it’s so powerful to finally satisfy our complaint in a proper manner.”
The union is still awaiting arbitration decisions on similar short-staffing complaints in two other NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn units.
In a statement to THE CITY, NYU Langone Health spokesperson Steve Ritea noted Edelman acknowledged hospital s made good-faith efforts to comply with staffing standards, including by hiring travel nurses and by ramping up new hires and recruitment.
“Despite UFT’s reckless claims, we have worked tirelessly to address appropriate staffing in our units and union leadership knows that. We are pleased that the arbitrator’s decision recognized our extensive efforts to recruit and adequately staff our units,” he added.
Nurses charge that the hospital has continued to short-staff their units this year.
THE CITY reported in August that the union filed complaints with the state Department of Health regarding understaffing at the hospital’s intensive and critical care units. Nurses at those units charge that they’re treating as many as four trauma care patients at a time — twice the number allowed under a state regulation that went into effect in June and in violation of their union contract.
NYU Langone – Brooklyn nurses have submitted more than a hundred claims against the hospital to the state Department of Health this year alleging violations of a state staffing enforcement law guaranteeing limits on how many patients nurses can be responsible for at any given time.
While the law is limited to intensive and critical care units, it also requires every hospital in the state to negotiate staff-to-patient ratios in non-critical settings with staff nurses, regardless of whether those nurses have union representation.
In an August letter, Goldman urged DOH commissioner Dr. James V. McDonald to investigate what she described as the hospital’s “ongoing failure” to follow those legal obligations. The agency’s investigation into NYU Langone-Brooklyn is ongoing, according to the union. A spokesperson for the state DOH did not immediately respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.
DOH spokesperson Danielle DeSouza confirmed the agency received the complaints from the UFT and declined to comment further citing the ongoing investigation.
Hospitals that violate the so-called safe staffing law, ed by the state legislature in 2021 at nurses’ unions urging, face fines of up to $2,000 per violation. Subsequent violations within the same 12 months can be penalized for up to $5,000, or up to $10,000 if the violation directly results in patient harm.
