Employees February 01, 2009
The President’s Perspective – Employee Issues
The following article is a collection of quotes from Yale New-Haven Hospital President and CEO Marna Borgstrom on issues of importance to employees. Unless otherwise noted, the excerpts originally appeared in a variety of YNHH publications and speeches. This article will be updated as new quotes become available.
Importance of YNHH’s Committed Staff: “We have a fabulous medical staff, a wonderful group of employees, and committed, generous volunteers. You know, 11 percent of our workforce has been here for over 25 years - that really is an incredible testimonial. A hospital might have old or new buildings, but the core of good health care is the knowledge, the value, the competence and the commitment of the people who provide that care. They are an exceptional team.”
YNHH as an Employer of Choice: “We do a host of things to retain our employer of choice position, including offering extremely competitive wages and benefits, an innovative employee incentive program and many other things. We have been recognized nationally as a preferred employer by Working Mother Media, the U.S. Department of Labor and AARP, to name a few.”
“My message is simple: Thank you. Our employees work very hard each and every day for our patients and their families. Because of their great work, patient demand continues to grow, as do our needs for a highly skilled, competent group of employees. We will continue to work hard to make this a place where our employees want to work and can grow.”
Continuing to Attract Quality Staff: “One of my biggest concerns is how we are going to staff our hospitals in the next 10 to 15 years. There is a growing demand, yet we have fewer men and women entering traditional healthcare jobs. From that perspective it is critical for us to be the best employer possible - truly the employer of choice.”
YNHH Works to Achieve and Sustain Goals: “Yale-New Haven is a leading teaching hospital and a community hospital, committed to achieving excellence in the delivery of safe, high-quality care. We strive to be the provider of choice and the employer of choice, but we never take those goals for granted — we work to achieve and sustain them. Our success depends on the quality and commitment of the people who work here. I believe our employees feel this is a very good place to work.”
Message to Employees Concerning Economic Conditions: “Employees are understandably concerned about the economy and how it affects them and their families. They also have questions about the hospital’s financial health and the commitments we’ve made to major projects. Yale-New Haven remains strong financially but we have been impacted by the downturn in the capital markets, as has virtually every other organization with which we interact. We have signed contracts for, sold bonds and pursued philanthropy to support the completion of the Smilow projects and we are committed to completing them as efficiently as possible.
“While it is hard to predict economic downturns in general – and the current one especially, our thoughtful decisions over time have created a cash position that is helping us weather the recession. We believe that the markets will improve and it is critical for us to invest strategically in our long-term goal of becoming a top-10 hospital nationally.” (YNHH Employee Bulletin, December 11, 2008)
YNHH Philosophy on an Organized Workforce: “We have more than 7,000 employees here, [including] 140 people in a long-established bargaining unit. Those people are our employees; they are not union employees. If our employees want to join a union, we will respect that completely. But they need to be able to make a free, fair and informed choice about whether they want to join a union.” (Excerpt from Business New Haven)
Effects of Organizing Campaigns on Patient Care: “I am concerned that [union organizing campaigns] not become disruptive to the provision of safe, high-quality patient care. After all, we are here to care for patients. But I am optimistic because the decision to join a union or not should be in the hands of those who are most affected — our service employees. I do not believe they will benefit from being represented by an outside third party. As I said earlier, we have long been committed to a highly competitive pay and benefits program, and we have lots of opportunities for our employees to ask questions and provide input into how we function. Ultimately, our employees should be able to make the choice that is right for them based upon a secret ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.”
Why the SEIU Targets Hospitals Like YNHH: “…SEIU has increasingly targeted large health-care organizations nationally. They have a corporate campaign now in Boston; they have a big campaign in Chicago, one in Houston, one in San Francisco, probably other places. They are focusing on the large teaching hospital primarily because if they can get those organizations to agree to an alternate form of recognition - largely card-count; ideally neutrality - then they can go into the smaller hospitals and it will be a lot easier to pick them off.” (Excerpt from Business New Haven)
