Kaleida Health Files Clinical Staffing Plans with New York State

Kaleida Health today filed its site-specific clinical staffing committee (CSC) plans with the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). The filing calls for an unprecedented investment and commitment of more than 400 new full time employees across the organization.

Bob Nesselbush CEO of Kaleida Health said, "We have said it before - and throughout our current contract negotiations -that we are committed to address the staffing issue that currently exists throughout the entire healthcare industry. Recruiting and retaining a strong and talented care team is critical to our future."

Last summer New York State approved and signed new legislation for all hospitals to establish specific "clinical staffing committees (CSC)."

• Pursuant to New York Public Health Law Section 2805-t, the Clinical Staffing Committee (CSC) is responsible for developing, overseeing implementation of, monitoring, evaluating, and modifying as needed, a hospital-wide staffing plan for nursing services.
• Furthermore, the CSC will be responsible for review, assessment and response to complaints regarding potential violations of the adopted staffing plan, staffing variations or other concerns regarding the implementation of the staffing plan.

The goal behind the new law was to create a committee-based process made up of nurses and frontline staff who meet with management to craft annual staffing plans that indicate assignments for nurses and other direct care staff by unit and by shift.

The CSCs focused their work on the areas where management and the unions could mutually agree on the scope of the law. Nesselbush said the teams at each hospital worked very hard since the committees first met in February. A CSC was formed at each hospital to acknowledge the individual differences that exist between each site and to ensure the greatest amount of staff participation.

Nesselbush added, "From a management perspective, we needed to better understand employee concerns, listen, engage and problem solve the staffing challenges that we face. We utilized best practice and industry standards for safety and staffing where and when available. Staff input was very robust, and their feedback was critically important to the process. We cannot thank the members of each of the committee enough for their time and dedication in helping joint problem solve this issue."

Below is a summary of the 436 FTE impact of the plans presented by management and voted upon by the clinical staffing committees:

• Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute - 281 new FTEs
• John R. Oishei Children's Hospital - 56 new FTEs
• Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital/DeGraff Medical Park - 99 new FTEs

Each hospital across the State must submit their staffing plans by July 1 to the NYSDOH, with implementation of that plan by January 2023. The process outlined in the law allows for areas of consensus and difference and a vote of the staff, management and CEO. If there are areas consensus is lacking, the plan submitted to the Department of Health need to outline these areas and the reasons.

In addition to the news of adding 436 new positions, Kaleida Health announced on Thursday (June 30, 2022) that they have agreed to a second extension of their existing Master Bargaining Agreement with its two largest unions, CWA 1168 and 1199SEIU. Contract negotiations have been ongoing since early March.

The extension is designed to continue efforts on reaching a new labor agreement that covers approximately 6,300 Kaleida Health employees.

The existing contract was originally set to expire on May 31, 2022. The two sides agreed to a 30-day extension in late May. The new extension will run through the end of July.

To date, Kaleida Health and the unions have reached tentative agreement on 86 of 108 articles, 55 of 67 memoranda of understanding as well as six (of seven) letters of intent, which represent a majority of all non-economic issues in the contract.