California Members Stand Up for Safe Staffing

CIR members from the north to the south of the state have joined with fellow SEIU Healthcare members to work for safe ancillary staffing levels. On August 18, 2008, CIR leaders traveled from the Bay Area to Sacramento to lobby for a bill that would mandate safe staffing levels at hospitals throughout the state. They visited six state senate offices to discuss the dangers of understaffing, and distributed a brochure that included a survey of nearly 500 CIR California members on the importance of ancillary staffing.

In Los Angeles, Psychiatry residents at LAC + USC met with hospital management and the Dept. of Health Services on July 28, 2008, along with SEIU 721 members, to express their grave concern over the lack of social workers at their hospital.They have lost more than 50% of their social work staff over the past two years, resulting in 15 social workers in place of 43. Each social worker cares for 80-100 patients. “This gross understaffing is dangerous to our patients, as social workers are imperative to patient flow and overall well-being,” said CIR Psychiatry Representative Dr. R. Scott Bailey.


From left to right, Drs. Rachel Kreps-Falk, CIR N. California V.P., Davida Flattery, and Amy Mao met with State Senator Carole Migden, who was sympathetic to the need for adequate ancillary staff.