As a nurse at St. Francis Medical Center, Scott Byington has seen his share of medical emergencies.

But one November 2021 incident stands out in his mind.

It was a busy night in the Lynwood hospital’s emergency room and the nursing staff was stretched thin when a psychiatric patient who should have been closely monitored wandered away and jumped to his death from the top of a five-story parking garage. 

“The nurse who was supposed to be watching him was new and didn’t have the proper training for that kind of patient,” the 57-year-old Westchester resident said. “That’s the kind of situation that will bother you for life.”

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Patient care at St. Francis has been crippled by chronic understaffing, Byington said, and nurses and other medical personnel plan to strike the week of Monday, Oct. 9 as a result. They claim they’re underpaid and facing high turnover because of the staffing crisis.

The hospital’s 600 nurses are represented by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, while most of the medical support staff — including nursing assistants, medical techs and others — are members of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.

Their contract expired Aug. 14 but labor negotiations are scheduled for Oct. 3, 12 and 17.

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UNAC/UHCP spokesman Jeff Rogers said any meeting on Oct. 12 is uncertain “since the strike will be going on.”

Ontario-based Prime Healthcare bought St. Francis through bankruptcy in 2020, and nurses say management terminated 20% of the experienced nurses, cut the pay of those who remained by 12% and instituted a three-year wage freeze during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those actions, union officials said, have resulted in an employee turnover rate of more than 50%.

In a statement issued Thursday, St. Francis said it continues to bargain in good faith with union leadership with the goal of reaching an agreement in the best interests of the hospital, staff and patients.

“Prime Healthcare has invested more than $36 million in improvements to St. Francis since rescuing the hospital from bankruptcy in the midst of the pandemic in 2020,” the statement said.

The hospital said its acquisition, saved jobs while improving the hospital’s infrastructure, equipment, technology, clinical resources and staffing.

Nurses picketed St. Francis last month, claiming the hospital had 800 to 900 nurses before Prime Healthcare took over and reduced that to 600.

“Before the cut, they were still a little short of ideal,” UNAC/UHCP representatives said. “Since the cuts, they’re dangerously short-staffed.”

Nurses note that St. Francis is one of the busiest hospitals in Los Angeles County, with the only Level II trauma, stroke, and heart attack response center for miles around.

“It doesn’t matter where you live,” Byington said. “If you’re driving down the 105 or 605 and you’re in an accident, this is your hospital. This is where you will be coming.”

With so many essential personnel planning to strike, union representatives say the hospital could be paralyzed, with ripple effects spreading to other area LA County trauma centers, including Harbor UCLA Medical Center and St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, among others.

Nurses at St. Francis say they’ve filed more than 6,000 staffing objection forms with California’s Department of Public Health since June. Each one represents an instance when a unit and shift were short-staffed in violation of California’s Title XXII safe nurse-to-patient ratio regulations.

Byington said the ER is supposed to have 14 registered nurses on staff at night, yet some nights there will only be about seven, including two who have to leave around midnight because they have worked a 12-hour shift.

The Department of Public Health has visited the hospital several times and acknowledged the complaints, he said, but nothing has been done.

“Just recently, we had to divert patients and ambulances to other hospitals because we didn’t have the staffing in the emergency room and we didn’t have the staffing in ICU,” Mayra Castaneda, an ultrasound tech at St. Francis and a SEIU-UHW leader, said in a statement. “The short staffing is severe and it’s only getting worse.”

St. Francis said it has delivered proposals to both unions that would “increase wages and provide a workable and affordable healthcare plan, maintain important benefits, and be competitive with other hospitals in the market.”