Healthcare workers rally in capital for better working conditions

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — On Thursday, dozens of healthcare workers met at the capital to advocate for the Hospital Worker Safety Bill (SB 3424/HB 5320). This bill would establish a set process for workers to voice concerns over unsafe working conditions, and hold hospital management accountable for responding to concerns.

At the rally, many healthcare workers said their primary safety concern was understaffed hospital units. Kimberly Smith, a patient care technician, says there are several shifts where she has been responsible for caring for more than 30 patients alone. She says healthcare administrators need a wake up call about how understaffing has caused the quality of care to drop.

Smith has experienced these concerns firsthand when her daughter gave birth recently.

"My daughter has been that patient ... they're so short staffed that I become not her mom or the new grandmother, but also the caregiver, because they're not adequately staffed," said Smith. "My daughter is having a C-section and I have to get her up and walk her and ensure that she's okay and ask for the proper thing she needs, when there should be someone else advocating for her, but they can't."

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Anne Igoe, the Vice President of Health Systems Division at SEIU Healthcare Illinois, says healthcare systems have been cutting employment for critical employees long before COVID-19 started. She says even when workers join the healthcare field to care for others, they lose their passion because they get burnt out so quickly.

"We work in these hospitals, we live in these communities, and we demand better service within this industry as a whole," said Igoe. "The folks impacted by this could be our mothers, grandfathers, and could have patient outcomes that we don't want to see here in Illinois."

Workers said this issue has caused hospitals in low-income areas to cut services that are desperately needed by local community members.