Calling on Tenet Healthcare, Corporation, the owner and operator of the Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP) Hospital, to acknowledge the vital importance of nurses to patient care by agreeing to a fair and equitable contract with the nursing staff of MCP, Local 112 Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) and by responding positively to the nurse's reasonable demands that the hospital increase staffing, eliminate unsafe forced overtime and provide affordable health care and fair wage increases to their dedicated nursing staff.

WHEREAS, The Medical College of Pennsylvania is a major provider of health care to the citizens of Philadelphia; and

WHEREAS, The hospital cannot provide adequate medical coverage without attracting and retaining high quality nursing staff and providing nursing care at medically responsible levels; and

WHEREAS, The Journal of the American Medical Association reported in 2002 that levels of nurse staffing are critical to patient survival rates, finding that patients have a 31 percent greater chance of dying when nurses are assigned eight patients rather than four patients in medical surgical units; and

WHEREAS, The hiring of additional nurses and the adequate compensation of existing staff would improve patient care and reduce turnover rates released to burnout and job dissatisfaction; and

WHEREAS, There are numerous federal and state laws that prohibit employers from forcing airline pilots, railroad engineers, truck and bus drivers from working 16-hour days yet Tenet Healthcare routinely demands that its nurses work unscheduled shifts of twelve to twenty hours in duration; and

WHEREAS, In light of Tenet Healthcare's receipt of public funds and tax exemptions, it is important that Tenet Healthcare fulfill the public policy embedded in state law to bargain in good faith with its employees and dedicate itself to the mission of providing quality health care; and

WHEREAS, Tenet Healthcare has closed the Level One Trauma Care Center at the Medical College of Pennsylvania causing the community's critically injured patients to travel a greater distance to receive life saving care; and

WHEREAS, The members of OPEIU have the united support of the labor movement exemplified by the support of the state AFL-CIO and of Hospital Workers Union 1199C at the rally stages on November 24, 2003; and

WHEREAS, As of December 11, 2003, the nurses of the Medical College of Pennsylvania will have been on strike for a full month and the hospital has flown in replacement nurses from outside the City;

RESOLVED, THAT THE CITY COUNCIL OF PHILADELPHIA, Calls upon Tenet Healthcare to acknowledge the importance of nurses to patient care by bargaining in good faith with MCP Hospital's staff nurses, OPEIU Local 112, and by responding to the union's reasonable demands that the hospital increase staffing, eliminate forced overtime, and provide affordable health care and fair wage increases to nurses.

FURTHER RESOLVED, That a true and correct copy of this resolution be sent to Richard Freeman, the Chief Executive Officer of MCP Hospital, and to Trevor Fetter, the Chairman of the Board of Tenet Healthcare, as evidence of the grave concern of this legislative body.

End