More than 240 physicians and advanced practice providers from dozens of Banner Health locations throughout the Phoenix area have filed to unionize.
The effort comes as clinicians have expressed concerns about patient panel sizes, staffing levels, and scheduling practices, which have gone unaddressed, leaving them "worried about patient safety, continuity of care, and increasing administrative burdens," the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD) said in announcing the filing.
These concerns were amplified when family medicine physician Syerra Lea, DO, who has been with Banner Health for 15 years, said she was disciplined after flagging a scheduling error that could have led to hundreds of patients arriving for appointments with clinicians who were not scheduled to be on duty, UAPD added.
The alleged incident resulted in the filing of an unfair labor practice (ULP) charge with the National Labor Relations Board, the union announced last month. Should the scheduling error not have been corrected, patients would have "faced delays of rescheduling several months later," it stated.
"Dr. Lea did exactly what a physician is supposed to do when coming across a mistake," UAPD President Stuart Bussey, MD, said in a statement at the time. "She identified a problem that would have harmed her patients and brought it to the proper channels to resolve the matter."
