Most healthcare employers have been dealing with COVID-19 for a year now. With vaccines widely available for this workforce, we offer five considerations for healthcare employers as they move toward a post-pandemic environment.

  1. Will COVID-19 vaccinations become an annual event?

For years many healthcare providers have required employees to get a flu shot. Are we

Healthcare facilities in California have been required to adhere to mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios since 2004. These ratios vary depending upon the degree of patient care involved. More recently, Massachusetts passed a law requiring mandatory staffing minimums in the state’s ICU’s. Other states are considering jumping on the bandwagon. A California-like bill is currently pending in

Nurses had no right to union representation in their hospital employer’s peer review committee proceedings, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled. Midwest Division – MMC, LLC, dba Menorah Medical Center v. NLRB, No. 15-1312 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 18, 2017). The Court, however, found the hospital violated the National

This article on our Workplace Resource Center about discharging employees for participating in a discussion on Facebook may be of particular interest to healthcare employers grappling with employee misuse of social media.

A hospital’s newly implemented dress code policy was a material, substantial, and significant change to union employees’ terms and conditions of employment that required bargaining with the union, the NLRB has ruled.  Salem Hospital Corp., 360 NLRB No. 95 (Apr. 30, 2014).

The hospital maintained a dress code policy, which allowed employees wide latitude

A nursing home’s policy prohibiting off-duty employees from remaining on its premises after their shift “unless previously authorized by” their supervisor interfered with the labor rights of employees, the NLRB has ruled.  Piedmont Gardens, 360 NLRB No. 100 (May 1, 2014).

The union filed unfair labor practice charges against the employer, alleging among other

A hospital’s code of conduct forbidding comments that stray beyond “fair criticism” and behavior detrimental to “promoting teamwork” were unlawful, NLRB Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Susan Flynn has ruled.  William Beaumont Hospital, Case No. 07-CA-093885 (January 30, 2014).

The hospital’s code of conduct stated, in part:

Conduct on the part of a Beaumont employee