FRAMINGHAM — The union for nurses at Framingham Union Hospital said Monday that inadequate staffing, equipment shortages, and mismanagement are endangering patients at the community hospital, citing at least 30 alleged deficiencies since the beginning of 2024. The Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents nurses and other healthcare professionals at 70% of the state's acute care hospitals, said the problems at Framingham Union and other hospitals owned by for-profit Tenet Healthcare in Massachusetts dwarf the highly publicized ones at the bankrupt Steward Health Care hospitals. Both hospital chains are based in Dallas. "When it comes to issues of staffing, the treatment of nurses, and the care of patients, Tenet Healthcare and the conditions they have created and sustained are significantly worse" than those at Steward, Katie Murphy, the association's president, said at a news conference outside the hospital Monday morning. The alleged deficiencies at Framingham Union included a nurse overseeing six patients simultaneously in the emergency room, two of whom had slow heart rates; a hospital floor not having a nurse in charge; patients lying in their own stool or urine because there was no one to change their linens; and nurses unable to provide adequate pain management as a result of inadequate staffing.
