GREENFIELD — Standing on the sidewalk off Sanderson Street in front of Baystate Franklin Medical Center on Thursday, a small crowd of nurses gathered to call for the state Department of Health to investigate Baystate’s recent decision to reduce patient transport services hours.
Members of the Massachusetts Nurses Union said that cutting patient transport services between the hours of 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. — some of the hospital’s busiest hours — puts more strain on nurses.
“Support staff and transport staff are essential members of this health care team. They move patients safely through the hospital, they assist during emergencies, they ensure critical equipment and supplies are reached when they’re needed,” said Theresa “Terry” Hudson, a registered nurse and associate director of the MNA’s Division of Nursing Health and Safety. “Without these transport staff, those responsibilities have shifted to the nurses.”
Hudson believes Baystate Health’s decision potentially violates state regulations on patient safety and staffing levels, as nurses would have to leave the bedsides to transport patients and equipment.
“We believe this decision has created unnecessary patient risks,” Hudson said. “It increases the workload of the already short-staffed nurses departments, and it may violate the Massachusetts hospital licensure and safe staffing regulations.”
The complaint filed with the Department of Public Health states that during the nursing shift of 3 to 11 p.m., the hospital admits an average of five to 10 patients, compared to an average of four admissions before 3 p.m. Patient transport can take 15 to 20 minutes, forcing nurses to leave their other patients and preventing them from being close by to monitor conditions and respond to emergencies.
According to Hudson, this may violate sections of 105 CMR 130, the Massachusetts standards for hospital licensure.
In a statement, Baystate Health spokesperson Heather Duggan said the decision to cut patient transport services between the hours of 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. was made to make the hours at the Greenfield hospital more consistent with Baystate’s other locations.
“Baystate Franklin Medical Center has adjusted its hours for dedicated patient transport services to be consistent with the operating hours at our two other community hospitals — Baystate Noble Hospital and Baystate Wing Hospital,” Duggan said. “These new operating hours allow us to maximize our dedicated patient transport resources and leverage support staff for safe care.”
Baystate Franklin nurses, however, argued the decision puts patients at risk.
“The nurses are now bringing their patients places. That’s all well and good, but when you’ve got your name on five, six or maybe seven people you’re caring for, it can be hard to find time to get people to their appointments on time,” emergency room nurse Dan Postema said. “It’s not just moving patients — if you need IV pumps, IV poles, if you need equipment, now you’re looking for it.”
Postema said the hospital is already short-staffed and nurses do not have enough time to move patients between floors for tests.
“The staff are regularly not getting breaks,” Postema said. “We just don’t have time.”
He noted that staff are encouraged by upper management to take breaks, but it is difficult to find coverage for patients so nurses can step away. In June, staff were laid off across 22 departments, which included patient transport services.
Nykole Roach, with MNA’s research analysis department, argued Baystate Health is doing well financially and can afford to staff its hospitals.
“This is a hospital system that is telling you they’re facing financial headwinds, but at the same time turning incredible profit,” Roach said.
According to Duggan, Baystate Health did see a net positive income of $16.8 million in 2025. She added that so far this year, the hospital system is at a loss of $13.7 million.
Additionally, the hospital system reported $56.7 million in losses in 2024, $63.1 million in losses in 2023 and $177.7 million in 2022. In 2020 and 2021, Baystate Health saw positives of $35 million and $27.3 million, respectively.
Community members and patients of the hospital joined the nurses in speaking out on Thursday, with Turners Falls resident Casey Wait saying she has waited hours in the hallway with broken bones for a hospital bed before, and Precinct 6 City Councilor Patricia Williams adding that cutting services would impact patient care.
“When the hospital takes away essential services like transportation and forces nurses away from the bedside, they are threatening the health and the welfare of the person in that bed,” Williams said. “That could be me, as I stand here on my arthritic knees … and so it’s very important to be here, to stand with the nurses. Every single thing in their contract is about recruiting nurses to come here, retaining nurses to stay here, protecting their profession to give us the best care, and making sure that they stay healthy and OK enough to take care of us.”
MNA Bargaining Committee Co-Chairs Marissa Potter and Suzanne Love said the nurses union and Baystate Health are close to an agreement on a contract, which they have been negotiating since September. The last contract expired in December and the nurses have been working off continued month-long extensions.
Potter said most of the union’s financial requests have been negotiated and the remaining items the nurses are fighting for include an additional nurse during the busy shift of 3 to 11 p.m. in the emergency department and mental health unit; securing an extra dollar per hour in pay for on-call surgical nurses, who are not permitted to be farther than 20 minutes from the hospital when they are on call; and more affordable health insurance rates for nurses.
“We have compromised a lot with the hospital, and we have gotten really far and, in essence, we are almost done,” Potter said. “The issues that remain really are not financial. They come down to patient safety.”
Hudson said she has not yet heard back from the Department of Public Health, but the complaint was only filed two days ago on July 14, and she said it typically takes 10 days to receive a response.
“We’re asking the DPH to conduct a thorough investigation to determine whether Baystate Franklin remains in compliance with state patient safety and staffing standards,” Hudson said. “This complaint, it’s only about accountability. Eliminating the essential staff does not eliminate the work; that work falls on the nurses.”
