How hospitals can respond to union organizing

The charges against Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center detailed on the Eye on B.I. website are serious – overworked surgical interns, financial discrepancies, attacks on workers’ rights, inadequate charitable care as well as poor pay and poor working conditions.Whether or not these charges are valid, the Boston medical community needs to prepare itself for a new kind of union organizing.

See a related article: All eyes on BI?

“Any forward-thinking health care organization that thinks it could be targeted needs to be preparing for this,” said Ashley McCown, president of the crisis management firm, Solomon McCown & Co. “Don’t let the union define you as an organization. You need to communicate first.”

Since the goal of the union’s campaign is to undermine the hospital’s reputation with key constituencies, McCown said hospitals should review their vulnerabilities before a campaign begins.

Areas that are likely to become a union target include:

• CEO compensation.

Given the focus on CEO salaries amidst the current economic collapse, pay scales for top hospital executives are virtually guaranteed to be an issue during any negative publicity campaign, experts say.

• Malpractice and employment lawsuits.

McCown noted that virtually every hospital is vulnerable on the issue of malpractice suits and patient complaints.

“They need to have a message ready for when the union publicizes malpractice suits and patient complaints,” she warned. “They need to put those complaints in context and have a program up and running to address those concerns and bring improvement.”

• Real estate development and expansion plans.

Union organizers “will try to undermine the hospital’s credibility among legislators and permitting boards,” said McCown. “The best-known example of this was Yale/New Haven Hospital several years ago, when it was trying to build a new cancer treatment unit and needed state approval. SEIU held up the permitting process and launched an ad campaign targeting the hospital. It was a long, bloody corporate campaign.”

• Employee relations.

“Hospitals need to make sure they have open and direct communication with their employees – and make sure those connections are real,” said McCown. “They need to look honestly at the work environment and culture. If those relationships are not strong, they need to respond to that weakness before they are the target of a campaign.”

Hospitals also need to be sure they are getting the message out about the good things they are doing in the community.

“If they have been doing community work and conducting education programs, they need to make their key constituencies – legislators, regulators, donors, the general public and the staff – are aware of these efforts,” she said.

McCown notes that Levy has been extremely proactive in his attempts to counter the union’s characterization of the hospital as a patients-last institution.

In his blog, he includes dozens of e-mails from employees, interns and doctors from both inside and outside the hospital praising the working conditions at Beth Israel and expressing grave concerns about SEIU.

“Hospitals should start on the inside and work their way out,” said McCown. “It all begins with the employees.”

– Bill Ibelle