Ascension Borgess is set to sell four Southwest Michigan hospitals to Indiana’s Beacon Health System this summer, including facilities in Allegan and Kalamazoo.
Lori Batzloff is a nurse at Ascension Borgess Kalamazoo, and the president of the Michigan Nurses Association at the facility.
She said Beacon told members they’ll still have a job if they meet certain requirements, including being in good standing. But it has yet to explain what those requirements are.
“We have not had any communication with Beacon as far as what requirements might need to be met, what it means to be in good standing. We don't have any guarantees in writing that the nurses we have now will be the nurses that we have following the transition.”
Batzloff said this may lead to some nurses leaving the hospital.
“Nurses would rather update their resume and start a job at a different facility rather than live with the stress of the uncertainty," she said.
Batzloff added the hospital already has a "staffing crisis."
"We already struggle to attract and retain nurses until facilities start staffing for the patient population that we have. We're looking for a guarantee that nurses that we have now will stay there.”
According to the MNA, nurses at the Ascension Borgess Allegan Hospital face this same issue.
“The last thing our community needs is for nurses to go elsewhere because they don’t know whether they’ll still have jobs here,” Allegan's MNA President Tina Kaiser said in a statement sent to media.
In an email to WMUK, Beacon spokesperson Heidi Prescott suggested the hospital would share more information with Borgess workers as the sale progresses.
"We have reassured both clinicians and associates that we are committed to their continued employment with Beacon Health System," Prescott stated in an email.
The sale is expected to be finalized this summer.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
