Valley Physicians Group, representing more than 450 physicians, says 93% of the union's physicians voted to authorize the walkout.
Unionized physicians at Santa Clara County's public hospitals and clinics have voted to authorize a strike as soon as November if county officials "continue to negotiate in bad faith" on working conditions, their union announced.
The Valley Physicians Group, representing more than 450 physicians, says 93% of the union's physicians voted to authorize the walkout, with 92% of eligible voting members casting a ballot.
"A strike is always a last resort and never something that is entered into lightly, particularly by dedicated public physicians. Unfortunately, county management is leaving us with no choice,'' says VPG Chairman Stephen J. Harris, MD.
In response, Santa Clara County issued a statement saying it will ask the California Public Employment Relations Board to issue an injunction "preventing essential workers from striking."
VPG and county officials have already brokered a salary structure for their next contract, leaving only worksite issues that the union says adversely affect patient care and physician mental health to be resolved.
VPG physicians have been working without a contract for the past two years.
"Physicians are doing everything we can to resolve working conditions issues that have a serious impact on patient care and physician mental health," Harris says. "We have highlighted these issues for years but management is still unwilling to partner with us to support high quality public health in Santa Clara County."
VPG says its members have documented problems with overbooked appointments, long wait times for specialty referrals, substandard diagnostic equipment, chronic short staffing and high turnover— all of which hurt patient care and health outcomes.
Those problems have led to an exodus of 65 primary care physicians over the past five years, the union says. In that same span, only one physician from the county's residency program agreed to work in primary care, and lasted only nine months.
The union says a recent member survey found "deep levels of dissatisfaction" with the care quality they provide because of poor working conditions. As a result, VPG says "a substantial number of physicians say they plan on leaving county employment in the very near future," which would only worsen the existing staffing crunch that has resulted in closures and reduced hours for public health clinics.
Santa Clara Responds
Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith has dismissed the union's complaints. He told the San Jose Spotlight that the county had created "several hundred new positions" to support physicians and has allocated money for new equipment.
Smith has called VPG's actions "just a political (ploy) for the negotiating team to try to pretend there's a problem with VMC."
"There's no problem with quality. There's no problem with retention. There's no problem with recruitment," he says.
When contact by HealthLeaders, Santa Clara County issued a statement saying it was "disappointed that the union has chosen to limit healthcare access for their patients by calling a strike."
"We met several times over the weekend with union representatives and put a generous proposal in front of them that addresses their concerns, and they flatly rejected it. We tried to schedule another meeting for this week and they're rejecting our desire to continue to meet and confer. The County is preparing to go to PERB to get injunctions to prevent essential workers from striking. We believe that taking action that is detrimental to patient care is illegal, so we're prepared to argue in front of PERB to prevent that from happening."
“A strike is always a last resort and never something that is entered into lightly, particularly by dedicated public physicians. Unfortunately, county management is leaving us with no choice.”
Stephen J. Harris, MD, chairman, Valley Physicians Group.
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
VPG cites overbooked appointments, long wait times for referrals, poor diagnostic equipment, chronic short staffing and high turnover.
Those problems have led to an exodus of 65 primary care physicians over the past five years, the union says.
In that same span, only one physician from the county's residency program agreed to work in primary care, and lasted only nine months.
Santa Clara County says it will ask the California Public Employment Relations Board to issue an injunction "preventing essential workers from striking."