Unionizing the Sandoval Regional Medical Center: More Questions Than Answers
By June Anglin, DPSC
Recently, signs went up in Rio Rancho and Corrales asking Jamie Silva-Steele to care enough to bargain now for better patient care. Some of the signs have disappeared. But the issue has not.
What is going on at Sandoval Regional Medical Center (SRMC)? A review of the last few years of Rio Rancho Observer articles on SRMC reveals: The beautiful hospital opened in July 2012. Covid was a huge challenge. By December 2021, nurses and other employees were trying to unionize.
SRMC, led by nurse and president Jamie Silva-Steele, refused to bargain with the nurses’ union. According to the nurses’ organizer, Adrienne Enghouse, Silva-Steele first argued that the hospital was not part of the University of New Mexico (UNM), although it always has been, then argued that the hospital was not a public entity, which it is, then that as-needed nurses were not employees, which they are, then that the union cards were insufficient.
After trying to challenge the nurses’ union, and after spending what is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers, and after the Public Employee Relations Board certified the nurses’ union and the card check, SRMC still does not have a bargaining agreement with the nurses and other hands-on care providers at SRMC.
I tried to get answers from SRMC and the UNM Hospital Communications Director. The SRMC receptionist refused to connect me with any administrators. He said he could not connect me or give out their numbers. The UNM spokesperson sent me an article from January 2024 and thought the signs in Rio Rancho and Corrales were a shame.
SRMC recognized the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM) employees promptly and successfully concluded bargaining with the secretaries, administrators, and housekeeping and environmental employees. That doubtlessly makes the lives of the SRMC administrators easier. The question is: What keeps the hospital administration from giving the same level of attention to bargaining with the United Health Professionals of New Mexico for the patients’ hands-on care providers including Nurses, Physical Therapists, Medical Assistants (MA’s), Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA’s), and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT’s)? Is patient care LESS important than administration?
SRMC now has the lowest rating from Medicare: One Star. Medicare now reduces its payments to the hospital by 2.97% to encourage the hospital to do better. You might not know that SRMC has a One Star rating, since the hospital continues to advertise on its website that it has a Four Star rating. Is that apparent misrepresentation deliberate or accidental? Unknown.
Leapfrog, the national rating agency for hospital safety, gives SRMC a grade of “D.” According to Adrienne Enghouse, safety issues at SRMC include four-hour waits in the Emergency Room and a very high readmission rate. The SRMC readmission rate is one of the 40 highest in the entire United States. Readmission rates can indicate incomplete or inadequate care.
Anyone who has been hospitalized knows how important the nurses and other hands-on providers are to the patients’ care and safety in the hospital. Why is SRMC not striving to keep professional nurses on board? Nearly one hundred nurses left SRMC in 2023. Newly trained and temporary nurses, without experienced professionals to lead them, are a safety hazard.
What gives? Why does Silva-Steele disappoint her own profession? Is there a culture of retaliation at SRMC, as some say? Who decided that it was better to spend dollars on outside lawyers than on SRMC’s nurses, physical therapists, MA’s, CNA’s, and EMT’s? Who decided it was better to lose money on Medicare than to negotiate with nurses?
SRMC always has been under the jurisdiction of the UNM Board of Regents. On January 1, 2024, SRMC integrated under the UNM license. If you wish to ask the UNM Board of Regents these or other questions, their address is: MSCO5 3200, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, or regents@unm.edu. If the hospital and the union need a mediator to help them get to the bargaining table, Let’s get one, Regents!