BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) — Healthcare workers across the United States have been caring for others in the midst of a nationwide staffing shortage.
Nurses from UPMC Altoona took took their fight to the steps of UPMC Headquarters on Wednesday morning to address the staffing crisis they say is facing their hospital.
"This is unacceptable."
That's what Sandy Wagner -- a Registered Nurse in the ICU at UPMC Altoona -- said during her speech at the kick-off press conference.
Sandy, along with other members of the SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania union, will be outside of the U.S. Steel Tower building for 24 hours.
They say they're demanding their leaders to "invest in nurses" and "invest in patients" by hiring more healthcare workers.
Sandy says she wants her hometown hospital to change for the better.
"I was born there. My children were born there. I plan on retiring from there," she told 6 News.
She says emergency department wait times have skyrocketed at UPMC Altoona -- with patients waiting up to 56 hours for care -- because of the "care crisis."
"They have the money. They have the funds. They should be setting safe nurse-patient ratios for all of their hospitals, not just ours," Sandy said.
UPMC officials told 6 News in a statement, "We do not have any reports of 50-hour wait times to start care or even a 24-hour interval to begin care at the UPMC Altoona emergency department or at any of our hospital emergency departments. No one wants their care to be delayed, and at UPMC, we monitor patient flows, triage as soon as possible, and prioritize patients in need of emergency care. However, due to high demands for care and the fact that other hospitals in the region are diverting their patients in need of emergency care directly to UPMC hospitals, we are experiencing longer delays and we often use all of our space to provide care."
The nurses are pushing for recruitment and retention, not incentives and travel nurses.
"If UPMC is willing to put that much money into travel nurses, why wouldn't they take just a portion of that and invest in their own nurses that are there day in and day out through everything?" Sandy said.
UPMC officials responded, "We are committed to meeting the needs of our community. We have implemented a number of incentives to attract and retain nurses and other health care professionals (although SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania declined to participate in these programs.)"
Sandy said they turned down UPMC's offers because they only helped a select few.
"Their robust offer was an extra 50 cents an hour, to essentially hold two positions at the same time. We didn't find that robust, we found it almost insulting. So, we turned it down," she told 6 News.
Sandy said they're worth more than that.
"I'm just here to keep fighting. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. I'm just going to keep reminding them that we might be rural Altoona, but we're still here. We're going to continue to fight. Our patients deserve the best, and so do we as nurses."
UPMC officials are encouraging people to get vaccinated if they haven't already to help with the ER wait times.
"The demand for emergent and other necessary health care services is a nationwide issue that has grown dramatically over last few months for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related care. In the UPMC system, unvaccinated patients are 7 times more likely to require hospitalization than vaccinated patients presenting to our emergency departments, leading to longer wait times for less critical needs and near-full hospitals," UPMC officials wrote to 6 News in a statement.
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