By Fuad Shalhout
mlive.com
GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. - When ambulances began pulling into Henry Ford Genesys Hospital on Sunday morning, Kim Rau didn’t hesitate.
The nurse of 25 years was standing outside the facility on the picket line, like she had been for weeks, when she saw the first wave of victims from the mass shooting at a nearby church arrive.
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Rau and a group of about eight striking nurses rushed to the hospital’s back entrance to help.
“Security and management allowed us in,” she said. “Then they were contacted by the administration and they asked us to leave.”
Ten minutes after entering, Rau said she and her colleagues were turned away.
“My biggest issue is they call for backup resources even though this is a code black,” she said. “In any other code black situation, they would call us, but Henry Ford on this day saw the civilians and decided they didn’t need us.”
Rau’s account reflects the frustrations of many longtime staff members who say their skills were sidelined during one of the darkest days in the community.
Chris Schneider, a Genesys nurse for 33 years, called it “a Catch-22.”
“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Schneider said of the hospital’s decision.
Henry Ford Health acknowledged the claims in a statement on Monday, Sept. 29, but the statement also said the hospital was appropriately staffed and it couldn’t allow striking nurses back into the facility under emergency conditions.
“As our Henry Ford Genesys Hospital team members continue to provide compassionate, expert care after this heartbreaking tragedy, we want to both acknowledge the claims that striking Teamsters’ nurses want to return to work to help – as well as explain why we are unable to welcome them,” a hospital spokesperson said in a statement.
The statement noted the following reasons behind the decision on Sunday:
- The hospital had already made alternative staffing arrangements, the spokesperson said, and was “appropriately staffed Sunday.”
- Striking staff no longer have access to electronic medical records or medications, which “would make it impossible to provide patient care.”
- Bringing too many team members into a fluid, multi-casualty emergency “has the potential to endanger or compromise the ongoing care.”
“We are troubled by attempts to divert focus from what truly matters—caring for the victims of the tragedy, our patients, their families, our community, and our devoted team members,” the spokesperson said. “We respectfully ask we do not use this dark day for our community as a bargaining tool.”
About 650 to 700 nurses represented by Teamsters Local 332 walked out on Labor Day, demanding changes to staffing ratios, premium pay policies and contract terms.
Union president Dan Glass said there is no end in sight and doesn’t trust the negotiation process from Henry Ford.
“I have no optimism that it will be anything more than Henry Ford doing the bare minimum,” Glass told MLive-The Flint Journal last week.
The hospital has pointed to absenteeism and financial losses as pressures forcing operational changes. Henry Ford says Genesys has averaged $50 million in yearly losses and must restructure to remain viable.
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