HJNO Jul/Aug 2026

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  JUL / AUG 2026 39 Tujague We will actually be back at the table next week. Finalizing this contract would be ensuring the safety ratio, the staffing ratios that we’ve been asking for. Editor Which is what? Tujague Based on the acuity of the patients; it cannot be a set number. It’s based on how sick the patients are, and we want that to be taken into consideration. In our ICUs cur- rently, it’s usually 1-to-1 or 1-to-2, depend- ing upon the situation. But on our inpa- tient units, it’s 5- or 6-to-1, depending upon the unit, and sometimes those patients are sick enough where that 10 minutes you’re granted per hour if you have six patients is not enough time. And so, increased staffing, increased support staff, guaranteed livable wages that aren’t merit-based, but are shown on a favoritism system. Merit increases only are not sustainable for the increased cost of living in the city. [Also,] guaranteed work- place violence prevention measures that have already been enacted and continue to improve. Let’s see, what other things would be great? The ability to make decisions that do affect the care that we give, especially prevention measures, like a weapons detec- tion system, at the hospitals. Editor It does feel a bit like Fort Knox get- ting inside. Tujague Sometimes, but thankfully we’re not having guns left in the hospital anymore or patients found with knives on them once they’re in the inpatient units, and so many other problems that we were having prior to implementing the system. Or staff mem- bers being attacked in the garage and no one being able to come to their rescue because they were unaware. And now, we have safety measures with staff direct badges, where if someone is being assaulted or afraid of assault, they can press [the badge] and someone knows that they’re being assaulted in the garage. It’s lots of major decisions that have to come from corporate because it is fiscal where UMC only has so much con- trol over that and LCMC has to make those decisions. Editor If LCMC’s management said tomorrow, “Tell us exactly what it would take to resolve this,”what would nurses ask for? Tujague Correct. And I know the hospital has hired and opened beds in the last couple of years, but it seems like every time it gets to a point where it’s getting better, the staff gets frustrated. And the frustration comes from high nurse-patient ratios, lack of sufficient support staff, workplace violence incidences where there are patients, family members who are retaliating against staff for various reasons, oftentimes because of these wait times or other high-stress situations. Since we are a Level 1 trauma center, the stress levels that the patients feel and the family members feel are already elevated. So, this becomes just another ongoing cycle of: it seems like the beds will open, we have the staff, and then we lose more nurses who are tired of the moral distress they’re feel- ing every day when they go to work. Editor Is this dispute primarily about con- ditions inside UMC or is it about decisions made at the LCMC system level? Tujague Both, because UMC makes a lot of their own decisions, but of course it comes down from the corporate offices on how many nurses they can hire per unit, the budgets that are offered, the decisions that are made as far as we’ve instituted violence