NORTHBRIDGE — Nurses from a local rehabilitation hospital took to the Town Common Friday afternoon to form a picket line after claiming that their employer Bluepoint Healthcare has not paid them for at least one month.
Nurses also cited staffing and equipment shortages since January, alleging that Bluepoint Healthcare, a Newton-based company that owns Blackstone Valley Health & Rehabilitation, “don’t care about us,” as nurse aide Apryl Doire of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, put it.
Some nurses, like Nichole Rondeau of Northbridge, recently quit after months of issues that reached a point of no return when her bank demanded the money from a cashed check back after the one issued by Bluepoint was not valid.
Rondeau, who referred to the patients as “residents” due to the long-term nature of care at rehabilitation hospitals such as Blackstone Valley, said she had started at the hospital in 2012 as a nurse aide, eventually becoming a licensed nurse practitioner.
“I'm very upset for my residents,” said Rondeau. “I miss my residents. I treated them like my own family members so it's a very difficult thing for me to quit.
“I was on the same floor since I was a CNA (certified nurse aide) — that should tell them (Bluepoint) something. I’ve lost trust and I’ve lost respect for them.”
Hailey Minichiello of Worcester first started seeing issues with payments the past few months, with her employer often postponing payday.
At Blackstone since 2017, she said that staff were paid through direct deposit, but recently, Bluepoint switched to check payments that have not been valid to be cashed.
Minichiello said other issues include shortages of equipment, often having to work around lack of tools.
She said the ownership has yet to address the issues and has not provided any solutions other than saying, “We’re working on it.”
“I worked all night last night and there are many nurses who are running on ‘empty,’” said Minichiello. “We’re not able to provide adequate wound care, we have no supplies. We're having residents go into smaller briefs than appropriate.
“I feel like if we don't get the word out, our residents are really going to have no one show up and I don't know what's going to happen then.”
Attempts to reach Bluepoint Healthcare officials were not immediately successful on Friday, while calls to Blackstone Valley Health & Rehabilitation were redirected to the ownership.
Bluepoint also owns health care institutions that offer the same services as Blackstone.
Rondeau said that after hearing that nurses at Pioneer Valley & Rehabilitation, a hospital in South Hadley owned by Bluepoint, picketed for facing similar issues, she decided to organize her colleagues at Blackstone.
On Friday, among other staff at Northbridge Common were also nurse aides such as Doire, who said to the switch to paper paychecks has presented a practical issue for her, forcing her to drive to Northbridge for that reason alone.
“It’s shameful that they provide us with these conditions when all we try to do is uphold the patients’ dignity,” said Doire. “It’s absolutely disappointing.”
Sheryl Caruso of Milford, a family member of two patients at Blackstone, also joined the nursing staff at the common.
She said that her daughter and her mother have been patients for about a year, a time during which she said to personally become acquainted with the staff providing care to her family.
On Friday she stood beside the nurses and the nurses’ aides, hugging some of them, calling them by their first names.
“I've never met such staff members,” said Caruso. “They're just so family-orientated and so devoted and now they're working with no supplies, no money, no paychecks, no gloves, nothing.
“They're fantastic and it's such a shame to see such good workers not getting paid.”
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