About 400 unionized registered nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP, voted late last week to ratify a new contract.

Tammy May, local PASNAP president and a registered ICU surgical nurse at Butler Memorial Hospital, said nurses voted 269-26 in favor of the new contract, which will expire April 16, 2022.

“Through solidarity, we were able to improve staffing, add security measures and maintain good benefits for our members, so we can continue to provide service excellence for our community,” May said.

The three-year contract set minimum staffing levels and an enforceable staffing resolution procedure in the event of a dispute. The contract also addresses procedures to keep the hospital safe.

“Butler County as a whole and the world as a whole is not as safe as it used to be,” May said. “Workplace violence is highest in health care. We live and breathe that every day, with families and patients dealing with the worst circumstances of their lives.”

Butler Health System declined to comment.

The number of nurses-to-patients and nurses-to-staff complement varies by unit and shift, May said. The staffing grid in the contract does not go by a ratio, but rather guidelines that will cover all shifts and units, she said.

“The hospital agreed to post positions within 10 days of ratification,” to add nurses in critical care, admission support and additional areas of need, Lisa Leshinski, PASNAP executive director, announced in a news release. “The nurses kept their affordable health insurance with only very modest increases to co-pays and employee premiums.”

Next, several representatives will put forth ideas about how staffing could change in their units to the hospital’s staffing committee, which has a written timeline, May said. One example of staffing issues is with some of the off shifts for nurses, May said. She added that the hospital agreed to allow more union nurses on its safety committee, which will look into the recommendations at its monthly meeting and review concerns or issues that need to be brought to the attention of management.

The hospital was given a year’s leeway for the staffing issues because of the time to hire and train staff, she said.

Once the year is up, if staffing conditions are not followed, then the union can go through the procedures to bring in a third party for arbitration, she said.

“Staffing grids and improving staffing and patient safety is the biggest one we could get,” she said.

Patient safety is the highest priority for the nurses, said Shannon Herrington, local union vice president and nurse.

“This contract will allow us to care for patients,” Herrington said. “When hospitals are safely staffed, patients are the biggest beneficiaries.”

The safety procedures will protect staff and patients, May said.

The contract has the best interest of the community because it is focused on the best outcomes for patients, May said.

“I am very happy that we were able to do it without formally striking,” she said. “I feel it is a positive change and a step in the right direction for improving health care at Butler Hospital, where we already give great care.”