Lynn Arditi

Butler Hospital and the union representing more than 700 nurses, mental health workers, dietary and maintenance staff announced Monday that they have reached a tentative agreement to end the three-month long strike.  “On behalf of both Butler Hospital and members of the bargaining committee representing all job classifications of the hospital, we are pleased to […]

Butler Hospital’s striking workers and management are scheduled to resume talks with a federal mediator on Wednesday, marking the first formal negotiations since the union last week rejected the hospital’s “revised last, best, and final’’ offer. Roughly 700 unionized workers at the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side have been on strike since mid-May. The […]

Roughly 800 unionized workers at Butler Hospital entered the twelfth week of a strike on Thursday. They are striking over wages, benefits and workplace safety at the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side. The hospital’s President and Chief Operating Officer Mary Marran spoke with Lynn Arditi, health reporter at The Public’s Radio, about the strike’s […]

Staffing shortages, rise in workplace violence fueling strike at Butler Hospital

Staffing shortages, rise in workplace violence fueling strike at Butler Hospital

State regulators said Butler Hospital failed to protect patients’ right to receive care in a safe setting when the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side allowed an unlicensed medical assistant to insert an intravenous catheter into three patients. Rhode Island requires that insertion of an IV catheter only be done by a registered nurse.  The […]

Rhode Island colleges will be required to stock the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan, in all dormitories and college-run housing starting Sept. 1. The measure, which Gov. Dan McKee signed into law June 26, also mandates that all resident assistants in campus housing be trained in how to recognize […]

The union representing roughly 2,500 nurses and other health care workers at Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital on Tuesday voted to authorize a strike, though the union stopped short of filing the mandatory 10-day strike notice. The United Nurses and Allied Professionals Local 5098 has been negotiating with the hospitals’ operator, Brown University […]

Temperatures in Rhode Island and southern New England have reached into the 90s and are forecast to climb to around 100 degrees on Tuesday, putting people living or working outdoors and those who are without access to air conditioning at high risk of heat-related health problems. Heat waves in the U.S. in recent decades have […]

Butler Hospital has raised the stakes in its standoff with unionized employees, announcing plans to hire permanent replacements for about 800 workers in their third week of a strike. But filling all those open positions with permanent hires at the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side will be tough, labor experts said, given hospital staffing […]