San Dimas, California — Registered Nurses at San Dimas Community Hospital voted unanimously to ratify a new Union contract Friday, solidifying a tentative agreement reached with the hospital after many months of negotiations. The contract includes important patient safety provisions intended to remedy the hospital’s severe turnover and chronic understaffing.

“We’ve been experiencing massive staff turnover. Nurses could not be convinced to stay, and the lack of consistent and safe staffing makes a lot of us concerned about the quality of patient care at our hospital,” said Joann Calizo, an RN in the Emergency Department who served on the Union’s bargaining team. “With our contract, we’ll finally be able to keep Nurses and that stability will lead to safer conditions for our patients.”

Nurses organized with SEIU Local 121RN out of a sense of alarm over the quality of patient care in an environment where the hospital has increasingly turned to temporary nurses from outside staffing agencies to fill the holes left by fleeing staff. Nurses hope that by raising working conditions to be more in line with other hospitals, staff will be motivated to stay at the hospital. They also intend to use new patient advocacy tools as a check on potentially harmful management practices, such as recent threats to assign Registered Nurses to oversee multiple Licensed Vocational Nurses, in an apparent effort to skirt California’s legally-mandated Nurse-to-patient ratios.

High Nurse turnover rates are a consistent theme across multiple hospitals owned by Prime Healthcare, Inc., which owns San Dimas Community Hospital.

The agreement includes provisions that improve the safety of Nurses and patients, such as the creation of a Joint Labor Management Committee tasked with improving patient care and working conditions, as well as a prohibition on requiring RNs to perform duties in specialized areas where they are not adequately trained to work. The contract also provides protections for Nurses who report health and safety concerns.

The agreement also calls for a plan to create a dedicated Break/Resource Nurse, so that Nurses can take meal and rest breaks in accordance with the law. Multiple studies have shown linkages between an RN’s ability to take breaks and patient safety outcomes.

Additionally, Nurses negotiated a commitment from the hospital to meet again in 2024 to discuss additional incentives, hiring and retention programs.

“I’m proud of San Dimas Nurses for getting involved and working together for this contract. I’m super excited to see what else we can achieve for our patients,” Calizo said.

The contract took effect Friday evening following the counting of the ratification votes.