Residents driving between Yucca Valley and 29 Palms may have seen nurses from Hi-Desert Medical Center protesting on the Highway at Whitefeather Road Wednesday (April 6/27). The California Nurses Union is currently in negotiations with Tenet healthcare, who operates the hospital. The issue behind the informational picketing is staffing levels at the hospital, which the nurses say is not adequate. Responding to nurses claims that the staffing level at Hi-Desert Medical Center is below current state mandates, Tenet Spokesman Richard Ramhoff issued this statement to Z107.7 News, quote – “When COVID or other emergency situations have forced us to be out-of-ratio, we follow very specific procedures to ensure we are doing all we can to fill those open positions. The State of California recognizes hospitals may go out-of-ratio during unpredictable and uncontrollable situations, as long as the hospital shows prompt efforts to maintain staffing levels and exhausts the on-call list of nurses available. The State reviewed our procedures during the January surge, and we were able to demonstrate our efforts to fill those positions. We received no penalties following that review or at any time during the pandemic.” “To suggest that our hospital is not willing to invest in nursing care for our patients is just not correct. It is well known that hospitals are experiencing a shortage of nurses nationwide. In addition to hiring traveling nurses, we also are actively recruiting for full-time nurses and offering incentives for the most critical positions.”
