Cayuga Medical Center will appeal NLRB order to rehire two nurses

ITHACA — Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca fired two nurses in an effort to end a unionizing drive, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge has ruled, ordering the hospital to rehire the nurses and reimburse them for back pay and related expenses.

The hospital plans to appeal, it told CNYBJ in an emailed statement. “Cayuga Medical Center strongly disagrees with the ruling by the National Labor Relations Board. Patient safety has always been at the forefront of delivering high quality care to our patients. We have always maintained a supportive workplace for our employees, as we partner together to deliver patient care. We will be appealing the ruling.”

The hospital says it fired registered nurses Ann Marshall and Loran Lamb in 2016 after the two failed to follow written procedures for a blood transfusion. But NLRB Administrative Law Judge Kimberly Sorg-Graves contended in her decision that the hospital’s given reason was “a ruse for its real motivation of removing Marshall’s vocal support for unionization.”

Sorg-Graves said Marshall was recognized by the hospital as the lead organizer attempting to bring union representation to hospital staffers. She placed notices on bulletin boards in the hospital and expressed support for a union on social media. 

Written procedures at Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca require that before any patient is given a blood transfusion, two nurses must check to confirm the blood to be delivered and the patient are properly identified and that the check must be done at the patient’s bedside.

In September 2016, Marshall performed a blood transfusion on a patient without a second nurse present at the bedside, according to the court decision. Instead, Marshall and Lamb had checked the blood against the patient’s paperwork at the nurses’ station before Marshall proceeded to the patient’s room and performed the transfusion by herself.

The patient, who had received transfusions 11 times prior, noticed procedure wasn’t followed and spoke up. She later emailed the hospital about the matter, saying she asked Marshall, “What about the protocol?”

Sorg-Graves said this violation did not warrant firing Marshall or Lamb. Citing testimony by other nurses and emails from hospital officials, she said the protocol was not followed all the time.

One hospital email she quoted in the ruling said of nurses, “They are clearly teaching each other short-cuts.” Another email in the chain, from an administrative director said, “these dangerous shortcuts are more commonplace than we’d like to think. We see it in our own lab processes.”

Despite this, officials who testified on the matter said they found no evidence other nurses failed to perform bedside checks. Sorg-Graves said she gave no credit to those claims.

Sorg-Graves went so far as to say she found Cayuga Medical Center (CMC) officials’ claims to be very upset with the severity of the protocol breach to be “contrived.” 

She singled out Karen Ames, the hospital’s chief patient safety officer and director of quality and patient safety, asking why Ames didn’t follow up on information from other nurses who said the two-nurse bedside check wasn’t always performed. “Not only did she fail to investigate those claims more, she prevented others in her department from investigating further or doing more to educate the staff on the proper procedures. These are not the actions of an individual who is motivated by a dire safety concern.” 

In her ruling, Sorg-Graves said while Marshall was let go because of the hospital opposition to her unionizing activities, Lamb was “simply a casualty of circumstances.” 

“CMC disparately treated Marshall and by necessity Lamb to support its termination of Marshall,” Sorg-Graves wrote.

The judge ordered Marshall and Lamb be reinstated, compensated for back pay, and that their employee files be purged of any reference to their suspensions or termination. Further, she ordered CMC to display for 60 days a notice telling employees they have protected rights to take part in union activities and outlining, point by point, what the hospital is doing to reinstate and reimburse Marshall and Lamb.

ITHACA — Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca fired two nurses in an effort to end a unionizing drive, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge has ruled, ordering the hospital to rehire the nurses and reimburse them for back pay and related expenses.

The hospital plans to appeal, it told CNYBJ in an emailed statement. “Cayuga Medical Center strongly disagrees with the ruling by the National Labor Relations Board. Patient safety has always been at the forefront of delivering high quality care to our patients. We have always maintained a supportive workplace for our employees, as we partner together to deliver patient care. We will be appealing the ruling.”

The hospital says it fired registered nurses Ann Marshall and Loran Lamb in 2016 after the two failed to follow written procedures for a blood transfusion. But NLRB Administrative Law Judge Kimberly Sorg-Graves contended in her decision that the hospital’s given reason was “a ruse for its real motivation of removing Marshall’s vocal support for unionization.”

Sorg-Graves said Marshall was recognized by the hospital as the lead organizer attempting to bring union representation to hospital staffers. She placed notices on bulletin boards in the hospital and expressed support for a union on social media. 

Written procedures at Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca require that before any patient is given a blood transfusion, two nurses must check to confirm the blood to be delivered and the patient are properly identified and that the check must be done at the patient’s bedside.

In September 2016, Marshall performed a blood transfusion on a patient without a second nurse present at the bedside, according to the court decision. Instead, Marshall and Lamb had checked the blood against the patient’s paperwork at the nurses’ station before Marshall proceeded to the patient’s room and performed the transfusion by herself.

The patient, who had received transfusions 11 times prior, noticed procedure wasn’t followed and spoke up. She later emailed the hospital about the matter, saying she asked Marshall, “What about the protocol?”

Sorg-Graves said this violation did not warrant firing Marshall or Lamb. Citing testimony by other nurses and emails from hospital officials, she said the protocol was not followed all the time.

One hospital email she quoted in the ruling said of nurses, “They are clearly teaching each other short-cuts.” Another email in the chain, from an administrative director said, “these dangerous shortcuts are more commonplace than we’d like to think. We see it in our own lab processes.”

Despite this, officials who testified on the matter said they found no evidence other nurses failed to perform bedside checks. Sorg-Graves said she gave no credit to those claims.

Sorg-Graves went so far as to say she found Cayuga Medical Center (CMC) officials’ claims to be very upset with the severity of the protocol breach to be “contrived.” 

She singled out Karen Ames, the hospital’s chief patient safety officer and director of quality and patient safety, asking why Ames didn’t follow up on information from other nurses who said the two-nurse bedside check wasn’t always performed. “Not only did she fail to investigate those claims more, she prevented others in her department from investigating further or doing more to educate the staff on the proper procedures. These are not the actions of an individual who is motivated by a dire safety concern.” 

In her ruling, Sorg-Graves said while Marshall was let go because of the hospital opposition to her unionizing activities, Lamb was “simply a casualty of circumstances.” 

“CMC disparately treated Marshall and by necessity Lamb to support its termination of Marshall,” Sorg-Graves wrote.

The judge ordered Marshall and Lamb be reinstated, compensated for back pay, and that their employee files be purged of any reference to their suspensions or termination. Further, she ordered CMC to display for 60 days a notice telling employees they have protected rights to take part in union activities and outlining, point by point, what the hospital is doing to reinstate and reimburse Marshall and Lamb.