Standing Up to Sutter We Deserve Better

"A lot of us are at the edge of quitting because we can't afford to stay here. All the new hires get a $5,000 sign-on bonus, but they're not giving us any improvements. We just lost two nurses in the past month because they say, 'we can get a lot more because everyone is hiring right now.'

The pay needs to be improved and they have to allow us to manage our time more effectively, not putting us in different areas of the city. They should really assign us in pods for certain areas to cut on our commute.

On any given day, I drive from one end of San Francisco to the other to see about 4-5 patients, depending on the census. I head back home around 3pm and then I clock out and I'll be doing paperwork until 5-6 pm.

The company expects us to do a visit in one hour and the charting and driving in those eight hours. They don't take into consideration the extra things we have to do or the commute time. Sometimes, for complex wound care, the treatment can take up to two hours. And it can take me 45 minutes to an hour to go see the next patient. Sometimes if you need to make a call, you're on hold for half an hour, and when we're driving we're not charting.

We also need to fix the vacation system. Some people are being denied vacations because we're so short staffed. They only allow one person from each discipline to go off at a time. So, if two people from the same unit are asking for vacation, one is not going to get it.

Every three months, we have PTO sign-up meetings that are not paid. They come after the general all staff meeting and can last up to 30 minutes as people come to agreements on days off they want to take. And they still expect us to see the same amount of patients for that day. On those days, we end up working 10 hours."

"The organization always seemed kind of disorganized, but now there seems to be less understanding of the clinicians' need from management.

A lot of decisions are made without the input of the people who know best, the clinicians.

Before, we used to have Experience of Work (EOW) committees of clinicians who would meet to recommend solutions to issues we were having and now there's a smaller group micromanaged by administrators and they're only allowed to deal with minor issues like the way your signature appears in your email.

The employees should have a say in how the company is run. A lot of the management people have never worked in the field or it's been a while since they've done it. It's not clear what their understanding is or how our workdays are. Making some changes would help us and contribute to a better work environment and would also help patients.

Right now, we feel like pawns to be moved around for the company to be more productive. I'm used to being treated with a little more respect. I want to help my patients but the expectation for productivity is not realistic.

There's only two of us and there's a lot of driving to cover our territories. We have to drive so far that we don't have enough time to chart in between. It also takes time to make the calls, to communicate with a doctor, so I end up charting at the end of the day, often times after I clock out.

I want to help my patients but the expectation for productivity is not realistic."

"This makes scheduling difficult. We would have three people scheduled for one day and one on another day. People started leaving because either the pay wasn't good or our raises were too low. Our pay is not as competitive.

One social worker recently left because she got a job at UC Davis, where they get better pay.

A lot of people are thinking about leaving. Turnover is super high because people are not getting paid what they're getting paid elsewhere. Or they're waiting to be licensed to go and find another place of employment because even when they get their license, they're not compensated here.

Who's going to apply for a low-wage position?

Sutter needs to give us the raises they didn't give us.

This year, only people who are non-union got raises.

Every year we've been getting raises and this year because we're in bargaining, the company said only management-represented employees would get merit and market increases.

The shortstaffing delays patient care because when we become shortstaffed, we are dispersed to other hospitals and patients don't get seen right away and they're not discharged.

Recently, for instance, because Sutter Davis only hired a few people, one person went into bereavement and another on maternity leave, and there was no one in the morning shift. I went in and they had people that had been there for 120 hours and had not been placed and were still waiting in the ER. Because they don't have staff, they don't get evaluated or get placed in treatment at a psychiatric facility right away. It delays their treatment."