Members of the resident physicians union at Detroit Medical Center picketed outside Detroit Receiving Hospital on Thursday, saying hospital administrators are refusing to begin contract talks.
Residents said they formed the National Labor Relations Board-certified union to fight what they described as the DMC's focus on profits over patient care, which has resulted in declining morale and unsafe conditions for both patients and staff.
Dr. James Miller is a resident in internal medicine and pediatrics. He says the chronic understaffing means doctors often have to fill in for other staff such as case managers, who help patients get discharged with a plan of care outside the hospital. Or they might have to perform ultrasound IVs because there are no IV technicians on staff, in addition to doing their own jobs.
"People are really chronically exhausted from working outside of our usual scope in order to get care for our patients," Miller said. "Every single day we're understaffed and we have realized that's just the plan. The plan by our hospital managers is to have everything running with our engines in the red until something breaks."
Miller said the understaffing contributed to alleged sexual assaults against patients last year at Detroit Receiving and an attempted shooting of a hospital nurse.
"We just want people to know we're fighting for the people of Detroit. Because we love this hospital and we love them and we want them to get the best care they can," Miller said.
DMC and its corporate owner Tenet Healthcare, based in Texas, did not respond to multiple requests for a comment on this story.
