MultiCare needs to honor their heroes

The health care workers at MultiCare Hospitals in the Inland Northwest have made numerous sacrifices during the past year. We’ve had shortages in PPE, exposure to COVID-19 infected patients, worked short staffed and overtime. Our employer has called us “heroes” and hung large banners outside our hospitals touting us as such. It’s time MultiCare rewards its heroes by offering competitive wages and benefits comparable to our competitors in the community.

The employees at Deaconess and Valley Hospital have always been paid less than their counterparts at Sacred Heart and Holy Family for the same work. We have excellent and well-trained staff who work hard to give the best care to their patients. Even our CEO tell us we do. However, we are having difficulties recruiting and retaining skilled and experienced workers. In fact, MultiCare hires and trains new employees - at great expense, I might add - who then go elsewhere to do the same work for more money and better benefits.

Over the past year MultiCare has loaned $75 million to bail Astria Health out of bankruptcy and have recently purchased Capital Medical Center in Olympia for $44.6 million; but when it comes to rewarding the “heroes” who have contributed to their financial success this past year, executives come up empty handed.

As frontline workers who have risked our lives during this pandemic caring for our community, my coworkers and I agree that it’s time MultiCare honors and rewards its heroes.

Diane Belyea, R.N.

Spokane