Nurses at SSM Dean Medical Group will vote later this month on whether to unionize with SEIU Wisconsin, following a union organizing effort inspired in part by nurses at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital.
Dean Medical Group is SSM Health’s outpatient arm in Wisconsin. The organization traces its roots to Madison, where the original “Dean Clinic” began in 1904, and it has worked closely with SSM St. Mary’s Hospital. SSM Health acquired Dean Medical Group in 2013.
About 380 nurses at Dean Medical Group are seeking to unionize, citing concerns about staffing levels, nurse retention and the impact of workplace conditions on patient care.
“As nurses, we are our patients’ last line of defense – we take that oath very seriously, and that’s why we’re forming our union, to advocate for them,” said Kat Doebler, who has been a nurse for almost 25 years and works in the SSM Health Outpatient Surgery Center. “In my entire nursing career, I have never seen such an extreme focus by executives on making huge profits while making nurses feel like we have to rush through cases as fast as possible.”
Its struggles are similar to St. Mary’s with staff retention and levels due to SSM Health policies. Policies under SSM Health prioritize profitability instead of care for patients — which St. Mary’s nurses have noted in their own fight.
Those issues extend to other areas of Dean Medical Group. A strong emphasis on profitability has contributed to stagnant compensation, making it more difficult to retain existing nurses and attract new ones.
Those nurses then leave, which burdens those who stay. Those who stay experience higher rates of burnout, which causes them to leave. The cycle then impacts the ability to give quality care to patients. Adequate staffing levels have shown a clear relation to the quality and outcome of patient care, a study of NY acute care general hospitals shows.
“The SSM executives in St. Louis don’t seem to know or care about what’s going on in our clinics locally. As a result, we have dedicated, amazing nurses who regularly become exhausted and burned out and leave our clinics,” Doebler said. “We’ve tried to individually raise our concerns and suggest solutions for years, but SSM has ignored us. As a union, we’ll be empowered to speak with a united voice to raise standards for our patients and profession throughout the Dean clinics, so they can’t ignore us any longer.”
Nurses at Dean Medical Group seek to unionize under SEIU to help rectify those problems.
Dean Medical Group has already received approval from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to proceed with a vote after filing its petition Aug. 10.
The vote is scheduled for Sept. 22-25.
