Baystate Franklin Nurses File Complaint Over Patient Transport Cuts

The Massachusetts Nurses Association filed the formal complaint this week, arguing that Baystate Health’s decision to cut transport personnel between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. forces nurses to abandon their units. According to the complaint, emergency department staff are regularly diverted for up to 20 minutes at a time to handle patient transfers for imaging and diagnostic testing. This disruption, nurses contend, leaves units understaffed and results in patients arriving at wards without proper handoffs or adequate supervision.

Suzanne Love, an Emergency Department nurse and co-chair of the bargaining committee, questioned the hospital's financial priorities, noting that the cuts follow recent layoffs despite ongoing executive compensation and capital expansion projects. The dispute arrives as the nursing staff continues high-stakes contract negotiations with Baystate management. While both sides have reached tentative agreements on recruitment and retention pay, the union maintains that the hospital has yet to address critical staffing mandates for the Emergency Department and Mental Health units. Nurses are scheduled to hold a press conference at the Greenfield facility on July 16 to address these safety concerns and the status of their ongoing labor dispute.