Nurses say Western Psych is in crisis as they push for a new contract with UPMC

Providers and mental health experts rallied on Sept. 24 at the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital to underline what they say is a crisis of management colliding with what experts call a national crisis of poor mental health.

UPMC nurses say the system’s — and region’s — biggest mental healthcare facility is at an inflection point. Western Psychiatric Hospital faces an acute staffing shortage and a lack of resources, nurses say, and turnover in the past three years has exceeded 100%.

Amy Kenny, the most senior nurse at the hospital, says the situation is as dire as she’s ever seen it. “I've been on the front lines and witnessed Pennsylvania's mental health emergency get worse and worse, and I've watched with increasing alarm as Western Psych's capacity to handle the crisis has diminished,” she told assembled media at the rally.

Kenny and others are members of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, the commonwealth’s largest nurses union. They see a growing disparity between them and their Allegheny Health Network peers, especially following recent union victories at AHN facilities. SEIU nurses at Western Psych are currently pursuing a new contract with UPMC and seeking public support via a petition.

John Hobdy, a Western Psych nurse, says his floor has been hard hit by staffing problems.

“On my floor, one wing is completely closed, and the other two have beds closed. During the night shift, nurses are often responsible for 14 patients each,” Hobdy told media.

Hobdy said patients with dementia or in a catatonic state need delicate care that overstretched nurses often can’t provide. “One mistake with these patients can lead to disaster," he said.

Hobdy and others filled the sidewalk near the Western Psych entrance, backed by the sweeping glass façade of UPMC Presbyterian’s $1.5 billion tower expansion. Multiple speakers slammed the expansion and UPMC’s well-compensated executives — both of which Pittsburgh City Paper covered in August — and recent revelations that the health nonprofit’s CEO Leslie Davis had been using the company’s $50 million private jet to fly multiple times to Boca Raton, Fla., where she owns multiple homes.

“We have a billion-dollar hospital being built right there that is not going to benefit the people of this community,” Ken Thompson, a public health community psychiatrist, told the crowd. “It's only going to make the people who have a lot of money richer and get more of their cronies richer, while our psychiatric units suffer from bed closures.”

Jeffrey Shook, a Pitt professor of social work and co-principal investigator of the Pittsburgh Wage Study, noted that “90% of health care workers in one survey reported that they did not have enough staff to handle the work.” He points out that this has created a mental health crisis among mental healthcare workers.

“We found that rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and trauma among healthcare workers were very high — alarmingly high,” he said.
Elected officials who attended said they fully support the nurses’ pursuit of better working conditions. Pa. Rep. Dan Frankel (D-23), who represents the district containing the hospital — and whose wife worked at Western Psych for many years — said the facility was essential to local healthcare.

“There are few institutions in our area better positioned to help our community than the one we are standing in front of today,” Frankel said, “[but] I've seen a great deal of troubling behavior from UPMC, an organization that enjoys the benefits of nonprofit tax status.”

Frankel and Pittsburgh city councilmember Erika Strassburger offered strong support for the nurses union, as did Pa. Rep. Dan Miller (D-42), chair of the Pa. House’s Mental Health Caucus.

“Where is that mental health plan for Allegheny County? Where is that mental health plan for UPMC?” Miller wondered as UPMC workers took pictures of the rally from upper-floor windows. “We don't need 50 of the workers who are here … We need another 400 workers to be here, and the state must partner with allies who will get it done.”

Noting the rise in substance abuse disorders, an ongoing nursing shortage, and the proximity of the Pitt campus (nurses chanted “more scrubs, less suits" as Pitt students walked past), Miller said UPMC had an obligation to work with the community, invest more resources in mental healthcare more broadly, and negotiate with their nurses in good faith.

“You either support them, [or] you're losing lives,” Miller said. “UPMC knows this.”

Hobdy, an Iraq War veteran, said he cares deeply about his work.

“As one of the only Black male nurses at Western Psych and a Pittsburgh native, I take special pride in providing compassionate, culturally competent care to patients of color,” Hobdy told the crowd. “But when we're operating with less than a skeleton crew, it’s very difficult to provide the care our patients deserve.”

“We will be there to fight with you,” he said. “We just need to be sure UPMC joins us in that fight.”