Mount Sinai racks up nearly $700,000 in understaffing fines

Oct 10, 2023

Good morning and welcome to the Weekly New York Health Care newsletter, where we keep you posted on what's coming up this week in health care news, and offer a look back at the important news from last week.

Beat Memo

The impact of the New York State Nurses Association’s latest collective bargaining agreement with Mount Sinai Hospital continues to ripple.

In fact, if you had to put a dollar sign on it, it would be nearly $700,000.

Last week the union announced its fourth arbitration win under the January contract, which enacted a binding enforcement mechanism for nurse-staffing violations.

Nurses who worked in the understaffed unit, a mixed medical-surgical and step-down unit for patients with a variety of medical concerns, were awarded nearly $283,000.

Mount Sinai was previously ordered by arbitrators to pay nurses $221,000, $37,000 and $127,000 to address understaffing in each of those three cases.

The latest penalty accounts for a “continuous chronic pattern of ratios being violated” on the unit between January and July, the arbitrator ruled.

The unit is supposed to be staffed with one nurse for every three to five patients, depending on the severity of their condition.

Mount Sinai executives had argued that the hospital met staffing ratios 93 percent of the time and that the unit was adequately staffed.

Finance director Robert Chersi said the hospital had spent $1.9 million on travel nurses and $285,000 on per diem nurses since January to help staff the unit.

The arbitrator reduced the award by 20 percent “to reflect the Hospital’s effort,” but concluded the unit was still short the equivalent of 305 day shifts and 245 night shifts during that time period.

“Hospitals everywhere have grappled with nursing and other health care worker shortages, and these are not challenges unique to any health care provider and have been well documented across the city, state and country,” Mount Sinai spokesperson Lucia Lee said in a statement to POLITICO.

“We are confident that Mount Sinai is appropriately resourced to provide excellent care as we continue to recruit top caregiver talent and maintain the highest standards of clinical quality for our patients,” Lee added.

IN OTHER NEWS:

— Woodhull Hospital resumed operations Saturday after repairing damage to its electrical systems from the extreme rainfall that battered the city just over a week ago, NYC Health + Hospitals officials announced.

The Brooklyn facility reopened inpatient units over the weekend and resumed outpatient services this morning. Approximately 50 patients who were evacuated from the hospital are slated to be transferred back to Woodhull today.

ON THE AGENDA:

— Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The New York State Trauma Advisory Committee meets in person in Albany.

— Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. The New York State Board of Examiners of Nursing Home Administrators will meet in a public session.

— Friday, 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The New York State Health Equity Council will meet via live webcast.

GOT TIPS? Send story ideas and feedback to Maya Kaufman at mkaufman@politico.com.

Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.

What you may have missed

— An uptick in tuberculosis cases is straining the capacity of the New York City Department of Health’s Bureau of Tuberculosis Control, which has been hobbled by widespread vacancies and years of budget cuts. That has left the bureau with limited capacity to manage the spread.

The city has confirmed about 500 cases of active tuberculosis so far this year, an increase of roughly 20 percent from the same time last year, according to internal preliminary data reviewed by POLITICO. That rate would make it the worst year in a decade.

Odds and Ends

NOW WE KNOW — For most people, vitamin D supplements don’t prevent disease

TODAY’S TIP — ‘Tis the season to get your flu shot.

STUDY THIS — New research indicates Covid isn’t the only respiratory infection that can cause lingering symptoms.

What We're Reading

— Via WNYC/Gothamist: One doctor’s decadeslong trail of injured women and babies began in New York.

— U.S. cancer centers report fewer drug shortages, but crisis continues, Axios reports.

— Teen depression rose sharply during the pandemic, but treatment didn’t follow, The New York Times reports.

— Via The 19th News and The Markup: What happens when nurses are hired like Ubers.

Around POLITICO

— DEA extends telemedicine rules through 2024, Ben Leonard reports.

— Via Megan R. Wilson: “Hospitals are in an unfamiliar space: the crosshairs.”