1,200 Want UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital Concerns Addressed

PITTSBURGH, PA — About 1,200 people - including more than two dozen state and city lawmakers - want the UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital board to open its annual meeting to the public next month.

In an open communique to the hospital's 29-member board of directors Thursday, the letter stated that the public should be given a one-hour period at the Oct. 12 meeting to comment on alleged UPMC anti-union activities and other concerns regarding the hospital.

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The meeting currently is set to be held online.

The letter stated that board members should be made fully aware of UPMC's alleged failure to follow national staffing standards, the loss of experienced nurses and UPMC's alleged campaign to discourage nurses from advocating.

Although state law requires a hospital's governing board to hold at least one public meeting a year, Magee directors are believed not to have held one since the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Magee nurses have been advocating tirelessly on behalf of infants, women, and everyone in our region, but UPMC has stood in their way instead of collaborating with them, so the Magee board needs to hear directly from nurses and their patients," said Democratic state Rep. Dan Frankel of Squirrel Hill who chairs the state House health committee.

"The Magee board has a duty to steward the hospital's resources and oversee its conduct to make sure it is fulfilling its mission. A central part of that duty is providing an open, accessible forum for the actual patients and the frontline medical professionals who provide their care at the bedside every day."

The letter comes about a year after about 900 Magee nurses and advanced practitioners voted to join the SEIU Healthcare PA Union. They still have not negotiated a contract with UPMC.

UPMC did not immediately address the contents of the letter Thursday.