(ALBANY, NEW YORK) - A deadline for Albany Medical Center to submit a corrective plan in response to a New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) report that found the hospital repeatedly violated New York State’s Safe Staffing Laws has passed and Nurses and other Front-Line Caregivers on the hospital’s Staffing Committee have still not seen the full report despite Albany Medical Center CEO Dennis McKenna claiming otherwise.  

At the exact same time New York State Nurses Association (NYSN)-represented Nurses were in a Staffing Committee meeting, McKenna held a press conference where he announced the Staffing Committee was given access to the full NYSDOH report. 

McKenna also shared misleading numbers trying to minimize the shocking and unprecedented 480 staffing violations he admitted the report contained.  

Albany Medical Center only reluctantly agreed to meet with the Staffing Committee - as they are required to by law - after NYSNA Nurses took legal action demanding access to the NYSDOH report. 

But, as of today, Nurses have still not been given access to the full report.

Instead, Albany Medical Center management provided Nurses with a limited list of types of violations contained in the report, mostly focused on the process of running the Staffing Committee, Union Officials said. 

Hospital management also refused to discuss the shocking number of violations that McKenna admitted to during his press conference.  

Albany Medical Center Registered Nurse and Staffing Committee Member Jaimie Alaxanian said: “We asked repeatedly to see the full Department of Health report, but management refused.  It felt disrespectful for our CEO to hold a press conference at the same time we were meeting and tell the public numbers that they wouldn’t even share in the meeting. The hospital is submitting a corrective plan that we were supposed to collaborate on, but how can we collaborate when we haven’t seen the full report?  The bottom line is that Albany Medical Center is failing to Staff our hospital safely and that puts our patients at risk.  Instead of being transparent and working with us to fix the staffing crisis, they are hiding the report and continuing to violate the law.” 

NYSNA said 480 staffing violations would be the largest publicly known number of violations ever found by a NYSDOH investigation since the Safe Staffing Law went into effect. 

Though CEO McKenna claimed the shocking 480 violations were only a tiny percentage of all shifts, those statistics are likely misleading considering the NYSDOH rarely reviews every shift in every hospital department over any long period of time, Union Officials said. 

Rather, the NYSDOH generally focuses on reviewing shifts and departments that have generated large numbers of complaints, they added.

Without access to the full report, it is impossible to confirm McKenna’s claims, NYSNA said.  

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: Albany Med CEO Dennis McKenna Misled Press While Continuing to Hide the Truth and Put Patient Care at Risk | New York State Nurses Association (nysna.org)