HAVERHILL — Yonnie Collins wanted to become a nurse to help people “at their most vulnerable times.”
She is primarily assigned to the adult behavioral medical unit at Holy Family Hospital in Haverhill, and is now facing a lack of resources that leads to harder circumstances for both the staff and the patients.
“We’re praying that someone will see the value in Haverhill and Methuen campuses as acute care, including medical psych facilities that are needed in this community,” Collins said.
Her concerns are driven by the seemingly endless string of bad news surrounding Steward Health Care hospitals in Massachusetts.
In a Jan. 23 letter to Steward Health Care System’s chief executive officer, the 11 members of the all-Democratic state delegation expressed concern about possible closures, violations of the False Claims Act and reports of missing payments.
This has sparked a whirlwind of local, state and federal responses. In Haverhill, Mayor Melinda Barrett called Steward Health Care Systems a “Ponzi scheme.” Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Westford, called out the for-profit hospital group as following a “private equity playbook” that causes patients to suffer.
Most recently, on Feb. 2, Steward officials announced that they are not planning to close any of the nine Massachusetts locations, including the Holy Family Hospitals in the Merrimack Valley.
Collins, who also serves on the Haverhill School Committee, said she “barely” sees her own unit because other areas of the hospital are so short staffed. This leads to the long waits patients are facing in the emergency department, which is especially burdened.
“We oftentimes get the blame for things that are beyond our control,” Collins said. “I also wish patients knew that the nursing staff are working hard to help everyone, but we’re spread pretty thin, so even remembering to say ‘thank you’ means so much because we’re like the mom of healthcare.”
Collins “floats,” as she called it, to the Methuen Holy Family Hospital when needed to cover its short-staffed units as well.
Unfortunately, the conditions are not new. In October, the nurses from both Haverhill and Methuen locations picketed to draw attention to the struggles around pay and issues with providing safe, quality care to patients.
Holy Family nurses are paid nearly 20% less compared to local counterparts, according to Jennifer Johnson, associate director of communication at the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
Except for Beth Israel Lahey’s Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, the two Holy Family Hospitals’ wages are lower than any hospital in the northeast region of Massachusetts, Johnson said, which helps explain why many positions remain unfilled.
The Haverhill hospital has closed beds on several units to the point that patient capacity has “been dramatically reduced,” emergency room nurse Jane Emory said in October.
This includes the medical and surgical unit that went from 32 beds to 18. The geriatric psychiatric unit went from 17 beds to 11. The adult psychiatric unit in Haverhill has also struggled with non-competitive wages and understaffing, according to Emory.
Collins said the staff is often mandated to limit the number of available beds on units.
“So patients are staying longer in the emergency department even when we have the staff,” she said. “We’re capped at the number of patients that can work on the unit, which management might blame on ‘census,’ but in reality the staffing is limited.”
And it just keeps going in a circle, Collins said. If only two nurses are working a unit, they can only admit a limited number of patients, which in turn leads to longer waits.
“Some of the nurses, doctors and any other employee that has stayed during this rollercoaster live in and care about this community,” Collins said. “Some of the remaining employees aren’t even from Haverhill per se, but they have decided to show up every shift and continue providing the best care that they can.”
At a City Council meeting on Jan. 30, Collins said some patients are “inappropriately placed” in units simply because that’s where beds are available.
Yet there’s not really any other options for patients.
“Lawrence is overwhelmed and not everyone can take the 45 minute trip to a Boston hospital,” Collins said. “We deserve quality health care and keeping these hospitals open is a step in the right direction.”
Follow Monica on Twitter at @MonicaSager3