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MetroHealth nurses tell Cuyahoga County Council they face repeated assaults, urge stronger safety measures and bargaining
Summary
Nurses and union representatives described workplace assaults at MetroHealth's Behavioral Health Hospital, urged evidence-based safety protocols and asked the council to press MetroHealth to bargain in good faith; council later restored a subsidy to MetroHealth in its budget.
MetroHealth nurses and union representatives told the Cuyahoga County Council on Dec. 9 that repeated assaults and staffing shortfalls at the MetroHealth Behavioral Health Hospital have left both staff and patients at risk and urged county officials to press the hospital's board to negotiate stronger safety protections.
At public comment, Patricia Kane, a Metro bedside nurse and president of her bargaining unit, said the hospital has lost roughly 45% of its nursing staff in three years and that workers have experienced "broken bones, traumatic brain injuries, bloody lips" and other injuries on the job. "We're being assaulted while we're trying to provide care for our community's most vulnerable," Kane said, adding that nurses voted 95% in favor of unionization.
Jeff Bettinger,…
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