68 nurses say St. John Providence fired them in dispute Health system hires new contractor for anesthesia services

JC Reindl | Detroit Free Press

The St. John Providence Health System has fired 68 nurse anesthetists at its Southfield and Novi hospitals who refused to take jobs with a new outside contractor despite comparable pay, according to the nurses' attorney.

The health system said it will continue its outsourcing move, and the new contractor defended the quality of the job offers it extended to the nurses.

The hospitals — Providence Park Hospital, Novi, and Providence Park Hospital, Southfield — remain open, but with anesthesiologists supplied by the new contractor. The contractor is a newly formed company called PSJ Anesthesia, affiliated with Dr. Dominick Lago, an anesthesia specialist at both hospitals.

The 68 nonunionized nurses were offered jobs with the contractor, but repeatedly rejected the terms of the offered employment contracts for reasons unrelated to pay, said attorney David Shea of Southfield-based Shea Aiello PC, who is representing the nurses.

The contracts offered the nurses similar base pay, but different work rules and scheduling and a lack of disclosure on other policies and procedures, Shea said Wednesday.

"Although their base pay was the same, there were problems with the rest of the compensation package," he said.

The nurses' main sticking point was having to work under Dr. Lago and his new company, Shea said.

“They would rather lose their jobs than work for PSJ," Shea said. "And now the question for Providence is 'What is more important for them, PSJ or their nurses?.’ "

St. John Providence officials would not give an interview for this article, but did release a statement saying that the health system will continue its planned transition of nurse anesthesia services at both hospitals with PSJ.

"PSJ Anesthesia was formed by anesthesiologists who have provided care to patients at Providence for more than 40 years as part of Northland Anesthesia, a nationally respected anesthesia provider," the health system said in the statement. "It is a common practice for health systems to contract with business partners to provide certain services."

Shea said the nurses received notice in mid-October that their jobs would be outsourced to PSJ effective Jan. 1. The nurses received termination letters this month that take effect at 11 p.m. Dec. 31. However, the health system contends it is not actually firing or laying off the nurses because they were offered comparable jobs with PSJ, according to Shea.

"And the impact of that is that they can’t even apply for unemployment," Shea said. "I am going to fight that, but that is what they’re telling their people, some of whom have worked there for decades.”

Shea said that only a handful of the affected nurses accepted the job offers with PSJ,

An attorney for Dr. Lago declined to answer questions Wednesday. In a released statement, PSJ said it "has been committed to recruiting the (nurse anesthetists) currently employed by Providence and, toward that end, offered a compensation package comprising the identical base salary as the CRNAs currently earn, as well as a competitive benefits package."

St. John Providence's hospitals are part of the nonprofit St. Louis-based Catholic health system Ascension Health, which operates in the state as Ascension Health Michigan.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.