KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Pastor John Fisher almost died on December 29, he said. He was at Borgess Hospital battling acute pneumonia when suddenly his condition declined rapidly. The nurse on the floor that day saw what was happening, looked at his wife and said ‘we gotta call the SWAT team.’
“They stabilized me and were able to get me up to the intensive care unit,” said Pastor Fisher about the SWAT team, a group of nurses who specialize in crisis care. “We need to make sure that there are enough people there so if that happens, whenever those crises happen, they are cared for.”
Pastor Fisher, of the United Methodist Church in Oshtemo, was among the 150 people rallying alongside Borgess nurses Monday afternoon against proposed budget cuts. Organizers considered the cuts to be “dangerous” not only to the staff but to their patients too.
“They want the nurses to take on more patients and we’re already stretched too thin,” said Jamie Brown, RN and president of the Borgess Staff Nurse Council. “We want the community to know that we are fighting back.”
Organizers said the cuts were coming from Ascension, their employer based in St. Louis, Missouri. Ascension is calling them "efficiency cuts.” However at Borgess it means they’re eliminating bedside care positions and their SWAT team.
“You need a nurse at the bedside to pick up on any subtle changes in the patient conditions so you can call the doctor,” said Brown. “We do everything.”
The Michigan Nurses Association released a statement saying these "efficiency cuts" are happening at other hospitals across the country. It’s all in an effort to curb costs for the company. However the union recently learned that Ascension’s operating income for the first half of 2018 fiscal year was $84,700,000. The real issue, they said, is "misplaced priorities."
“Out-of-state executives are potentially jeopardizing some care in Kalamazoo by trying to reduce the number of nurses available to do important life-saving work,” said State Representative Jon Hoadley (D-Kalamazoo) who attended the rally. “At the end of the day, we want to make sure that when it’s our loved ones in the hospital that they’re going to get all the care they need.”
Pastor Fisher echoed the same sentiment. He supports nurses fighting for safe staffing levels and hopes corporate offices hear their message.
“I was lucky,” said Pastor Fisher. “But luck shouldn’t be rendered into who lives and who dies.”
