Doctors, nurses walk out on strike at Ascension St. John in Detroit

Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press

Wearing their white coats and blue scrubs, some with stethoscopes still draped around their necks, emergency physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants at Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit walked off the job Thursday, striking against what they say are unfair labor practices that put patients at risk.

The union, the Greater Detroit Association of Physicians, filed an intent to organize with the National Labor Relations Board in May, and has been working without a contract since they organized.

The group of 43 doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners are employed by a Knoxville, Tennessee-based TeamHealth, which is contracted to manage emergency department at the east-side hospital. TeamHealth is owned by the private equity firm Blackstone.

Ascension St. John Detroit emergency room physicians pour out of an emergency room door to hit the streets outside of the hospital to join the picket line on Thursday, April 18, 2024.
Ascension St. John Detroit emergency room physicians pour out of an emergency room door to hit the streets outside of the hospital to join the picket line on Thursday, April 18, 2024.

The union alleges that understaffing and poor working conditions have created an unsafe staffing situation in the emergency department, which has led to excessively long wait times for patients in need of care.

Some workers carried signs that said: "No more profits over patients."

Dr. Shaun Gray, an emergency room physician who has worked the last 17 years at St. John, told the Free Press that the staffing situation has gotten so bad, patients waited as long as 13 hours to be seen by a doctor Wednesday night in the emergency department.

And despite having 60 patients in the waiting room, managers shut down about 20 ER beds because there weren't enough doctors and nurses to staff them, he said. The long wait time forced some people in need of care to leave without being treated.

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The group of 43 doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners are employed by a Knoxville, Tenn.-based TeamHealth, which is contracted to manage emergency department at the east-side hospital.
The group of 43 doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners are employed by a Knoxville, Tenn.-based TeamHealth, which is contracted to manage emergency department at the east-side hospital.

"We have 50 people that need to be seen, but we don't have anywhere to put them or any staff to support them," Gray said Wednesday night. "A single physician alone can't treat a patient when there are no resources to get them on a monitor, get the IV started, get them transported to imaging. ... This has started to become the norm, and it's just so frustrating."

TeamHealth issued a statement last week to the Free Press, saying operations will not be interrupted by a strike, and that patients can still come to the emergency department for care. It also said it negotiated in good faith with the union.

"TeamHealth has provided clinicians with support and resources for over 40 years to deliver high-quality patient care, even in the face of material reimbursement pressure from private insurers and Medicare," the statement said, in part.

Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Subscribe to the Free Press.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Doctors, nurses walk out on strike at Ascension St. John

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