Dialysis center to cut hours Dialysis center to cut hours (September 10, 2004)

Union worried quality of care will drop

By Julie O'Shea

In a move that will save El Camino Hospital roughly $670,000 a year, officials said they plan to cut daily operating hours at the Grant Road dialysis center.

The news isn't sitting well with union officials who said the cuts will place a hardship on dozens of dialysis workers who have to maintain second jobs just to get by. Of additional concern are the patients who will ultimately suffer if hours are cut, the union claimed.

"It's going to create this crazy atmosphere just because everyone's going to be rushed -- the workers, the patients," said Andrew Hagelshaw, spokesperson for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 715. "Quality of care is going to drop, and that's what everyone's afraid of."

This is simply not true, hospital administrators countered. If the change could impact patient care in any way, hospital spokesperson Judy Twitchell said, then El Camino wouldn't be making it.

Currently, the center is open from 5 a.m. until 12:30 a.m., Mondays through Saturdays. What the new hours will be and when they will go into effect is still being negotiated between the hospital and the union.

Hospital officials "are dedicated to making this work," Twitchell said.

Right now the Mountain View dialysis center, which serves 177 patients, is not self-sustaining, Twitchell said, adding that the service has a lower reimbursement rate because it is funded primarily through Medicare.

"It has to pay for itself in order to stay at the hospital," Twitchell said.

But this new arrangement could come at the expense of the center's employees, according to the union.

"They are telling employees to suck it up," said SEIU's David Canham. "Fifty percent of the staff has second jobs. If they have to work an extra day, it will cost them."

Canham said many of the workers are on shifts of four days a week, which will likely change to five days a week.

On top of this, Canham said, the dialysis staff will be so busy trying to get through their daily load that patients won't have time to unwind after their treatment before they are sent home. The dialysis center treats patients with kidney diseases by removing waste and excess fluid from their blood. The whole process can take hours to complete, leaving many too weak to drive home immediately.

Twitchell said the new schedule will accommodate the same number of patients the center's staff currently sees.

Last week, dozens of dialysis patients showed up to the hospital board meeting to express their concern. And union officials said they handed trustees a petition of complaint signed by more than a hundred people.

Valeria Milman, whose husband is a dialysis center patient, said she went to last week's meeting concerned about the cuts but walked away satisfied that her husband wouldn't be getting the short end of the stick.

Milman said she hadn't been aware that the dialysis center wasn't pulling in enough money for El Camino and that officials were scaling back because of financial reasons.

The hospital "has got to make money," she said.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.