NYU Langone Health reportedly rehired nine nurses earlier this month after an arbitrator asserted that it had wrongfully terminated them in 2022, when the medical center claimed that the nurses failed to help a patient who gave birth in a hallway.
In December 2022, administrators at NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn fired its entire labor and delivery staff for not intervening when a woman got lost in the building and gave birth in a walkway outside of the hospital’s labor and delivery unit. After two years of hearings and mediation, arbitrator James Brown ruled on Jan. 21 that the nurses’ failure to act was due to understaffing at the hospital and ordered that they be immediately rehired and receive back pay for their time off.
Anne Goldman, head of the Federation of Nurses — the union representing nurses at the Brooklyn hospital — said that nobody had informed labor and delivery staff that the woman and her spouse had arrived. Goldman added that the nurses were not fully aware of the woman’s reason for being at the hospital due to the lack of an intercom system and high volume of visitors.
“After carefully reviewing the events that occurred, the arbitrator said to the employer, ‘you got it all wrong and what you did was improper,’” Goldman said in an interview with WSN. “We were delighted, but sad because people lost two years of their lives going through a tough process which took courage.”
In a Jan. 23 press release, the United Federation of Teachers noted that Brown said the couple interacted with at least four hospital employees other than the nurses — none of whom flagged the woman as a patient. Brown said the labor and delivery unit were short-staffed that day, and that nurses are usually told not to open doors to unscreened individuals.
The medical center argued that the nurses were still responsible for addressing any urgent cases. In a statement to WSN, NYU Langone spokesperson James Iorio said the instance was “simply not acceptable” and that the nurses had “no other patients to care for.”
“Anyone who has a core sense of humanity and watched the video of this incident would be appalled,” Iorio wrote. “We expect our nurses to be able to exercise enough independent judgment to determine when they should assist a pregnant woman who appears at the door of our Labor & Delivery unit.”
A Crain’s New York Business article reported that based on Brown’s opinion, NYU Langone accused the nurses of making fun of the couple and intentionally ignoring the patient. The hospital also allegedly said that the nurses “failed to show remorse or empathy” when confronted after the instance.
“The grievants, who have no prior discipline and many commendations in their employment histories, should have been given the benefit of the doubt that their failure to show remorse reflected their genuine belief that the hospital was at fault,” Brown said, according to the UFT press release.
Following the ruling, NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn is formally on notice to ensure there is no retaliation or discrimination against the rehired nurses. Since the incident, the medical center has added signage and updated its intercom system. On Friday, NYU Langone also announced a new program where volunteers walk patients to their appointments.
NYU Langone has not signified plans to challenge the arbitrator’s decision.
Amanda Chen contributed reporting.
Contact Leena Ahmed at [email protected].
