A Message to the Community from the Nurses of Quincy Medical Center Regarding Our Commitment to the Future Success of our Hospital and to the Delivery of High Quality Patient Care
On behalf of the 293 dedicated O registered nurses of Quincy Medical Center we, the elected leadership of the nurses union, are taking this opportunity to inform the community of the nursing staff’s unwavering commitment to the success of our community hospital, particularly in these trying economic times.
As front-line caregivers, many of whom have worked at this hospital for 20 years or more, we understand the vital role this hospital plays as a health care safety net for Quincy and the surrounding communities. For most of us this is our community hospital, the place where we and our families go for care.
It is no secret that our hospital has, and continues to face, daunting financial challenges. Many of these challenges are caused by a lack of adequate funding from state and federal sources and we, through our union and as individuals, have been lobbying our public officials to address these issues. Some of these challenges have been due to poor leadership and misguided decisions by former management teams put in place to operate the facility. In those cases, we have done our best to work with management to convince them to make better decisions that ensure the success of this institution.
Over the last decade when called upon, we have voluntarily cut our salaries and reduced our benefits to support the hospital. We have done so because we believe in the mission of this institution and want it to thrive. In return, all we have asked for are the resources (particularly appropriate staffing levels) to allow us to provide the quality care our patients deserve. We have not always received those resources, yet we have worked to the best of our ability to ensure you still received optimum care.
Now, once again, we have a new leadership team at the hospital and we are cautiously optimistic that this team just may have what it takes to lead us into a brighter future. Once again, we are being asked to make significant financial sacrifices in support of a new plan to transform the medical center.
We are working in earnest with the new management team and are giving full consideration to the sacrifices they are asking of our nurses. Once again, all the nurses are asking for are the staffing levels that were promised to us in the past, which would allow us to fulfill the true mission of this or any hospital, which is to keep you safe and to help you recover from your illness or injury. We are the nurses of Quincy Medical Center. Many of us have devoted most of our professional lives to this institution and to the care of this community. You can count on us to do whatever we can to ensure the future success of this hospital, as long as we can be certain that we have the resources to provide the care you expect and deserve.
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