MaineHealth Care at Home Nurses Speak out About Patient Care Concerns

Registered nurses and clinicians who work for MaineHealth Care at Home (MHCAH) in Portland held a rally and speak-out last week to demand the removal of the management team at the home health services agency. The pediatric nurses and clinicians, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, and social workers, are represented by Maine State Nurses Association, an affiliate of National Nurses United.

Over the past year, MHCAH employees have been meeting with senior management about their refusal to implement necessary changes to improve patient safety and working conditions as well as their abusive behavior and toxic work environment. The clinicians say they have received no support from the current management team.

On Friday, July 7, MHCAH management targeted and unjustly terminated two longtime nurses who worked in MHCAH’s pediatric department. Management has lied about the reasons for the suspension and terminations. A few weeks earlier, management also had suspended four additional clinicians.

“At every turn, we have spoken loudly and clearly to our management to advocate for the health and safety of our most vulnerable patients,” said Marybeth Gagne, RN, chief union representative at the facility and one of the terminated employees. “MaineHealth and MaineHealth Care at Home want to silence us as clinicians and as union leaders. They know that we will always use our voice to speak up for our patients and ourselves.”

The problems created by the current management of MaineHealth Care at Home are not new, but they have now reached a boiling point, resulting in a staffing crisis and long delays in patient visits and missed care.

As a result of these chronic issues, two entire departments constituting about 10 percent of the agency’s workforce resigned earlier this year, as well as many clinicians in the York office of MHCAH who either resigned or were fired.

A “petition of no confidence” — signed by nearly every employee in the agency and delivered to MHCAH management on Monday, July 10 — stated: “The loss of these colleagues has severely impacted patient care and our ability to accept new patients. Before these valued colleagues left, several of them voiced their serious concerns to this management team and with Human Resources. However, they did not feel as though their concerns were taken seriously. They felt it was in their best interest to leave the organization entirely.”

The petition continued, “We believe that our relationship with these leaders is irreparable. We want MHCAH to return to the core values that have made our agency a place that clinicians want to work. We call on MaineHealth to live up to the values it espouses and hold these managers accountable for the damage they have done to our staff and to MHCAH.”

The petition concluded with a demand that MaineHealth immediately reinstate the clinicians who were unjustly terminated by MHCAH’s management, and make the additional suspended staff whole for any losses they had because of their suspensions.

“Our entire union stands with the nurses and clinicians who have been targeted by MaineHealth precisely because they are such strong patient advocates,” said MSNA President Cokie Giles, RN. “This is no way to treat our caregivers or their patients. MaineHealth must reinstate them now and remove the managers who are causing these problems.”