The embattled head of Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, who ran it during the longest nursing strike in state history and has faced accusations of mismanagement by nurses, is resigning.
Carolyn Jackson “has decided to step down from her role with our organization,’’ Maggie Gill, president of the eastern group for Saint Vincent’s for-profit owner, Tenet Healthcare, told employees in a memo on Monday. Jackson will leave on Feb. 14.
The letter was provided to news outlets on Tuesday by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the union that Jackson has battled for much of her tenure. The union represents about 600 nurses at Saint Vincent.
“After serving nearly six years in a difficult union environment, Carolyn is choosing to focus on the next chapter of her career,’’ Gill said in the memo. Gill did not say what Jackson intended to do next. A spokeswoman for the hospital did not return a phone call, email, and text.
Jackson also served as chief executive of Tenet’s broader Massachusetts market, which includes MetroWest Medical Center. MetroWest comprises Framingham Union Hospital and Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick.
The announcement came barely a month after the Globe reported that nurses at Saint Vincent alleged that cost-cutting measures were causing pervasive lapses in care. Among the deficiencies the nurses cited were the September deaths of two patients who allegedly failed to receive potentially life-saving dialysis in the intensive care unit.
The 25,000-member Massachusetts Nurses Association says Saint Vincent accounted for more reports of unsafe staffing last year than any of the 42 other hospitals where it represents nurses.
On January 7, about two dozen nurses from Saint Vincent and Framingham Union met with Dr. Robert Goldstein, the commissioner of the state Department of Public Health. They implored him to assign independent monitors to Tenet’s three Massachusetts hospitals after presenting evidence of safety lapses.
The evidence included a photograph of a noose that a psychiatric patient was allegedly able to make from bed sheets because of insufficient staffing. The patient ultimately did not harm herself.
Goldstein said in a statement after the visit that “the stories and insights highlighted by these frontline caregivers were honest and heartfelt.’’ He said his department investigates all complaints and visits hospitals if necessary, but he stopped far short of assigning monitors to Tenet’s hospitals.
Spokespersons for Saint Vincent and Tenet have repeatedly denied that care is deficient and said after Goldstein’s meeting with nurses that the union was engaging in “publicity stunts.’’
“There is no doubt that these unfounded attacks are related to upcoming negotiations with the union at Saint Vincent, a tactic the union uses in connection with contract negotiations with virtually all other systems across the state,’’ Tenet spokesperson Shelly Weiss Friedberg said.
On Tuesday, MNA president Katie Murphy said she didn’t know what prompted Jackson to resign. But if the union’s recent efforts to draw attention to alleged lapses at Saint Vincent contributed to Jackson’s departure, she’s glad.
“We were sounding the alarm,’’ Murphy said. “You know when nurses met with the commissioner, I had nurses in tears. They were in tears over the circumstances their patients were in.’’
Among the nurses who met with Goldstein was Marlena Pellegrino, who has worked at Saint Vincent for 38 years and co-chairs the bargaining unit there. Following the announcement of Jackson’s departure, Pellegrino said, “It should have happened a long time ago for the safety of our patients and the safety of our nursing practice.’’
The announcement came three years after nurses at Saint Vincent staged the longest nursing strike in state history, a battle waged in part over staffing levels. The strike lasted nearly 10 months before both sides settled the contract dispute in January 2022.
The hospital and union agreed to a four-year contract that included minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. But the union contends that Saint Vincent has flouted those provisions. A hospital spokesperson denied that and said Saint Vincent respects the contract.
Since June 2023, the union has filed six lengthy complaints about Saint Vincent with the public health department that paint a picture of a hospital where routine care is delayed or, in some cases, not given. The MNA filed its last complaint in December, an 18-page document that alleged more than 70 lapses in care.
The most serious allegations concerned two female patients in the intensive care unit who didn’t receive continuous dialysis that doctors had ordered on Sept. 29. Two experts told the Globe that’s the preferred form of care for patients with renal failure because it removes wastes and toxins more slowly and gently. The union contends there were not enough nurses working to provide continuous dialysis and that both patients died.
The union also said that last year some 200 patients acquired bedsores during their stays at Saint Vincent. Bedsores, which can be avoided by repositioning patients, are considered “never events’’ — entirely preventable with proper care — and can become fatal if they get infected, according to Mary Sue Howlett, associate director of the union’s division of nursing. She said the bedsores indicate inadequate levels of staffing, a link that studies have supported.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com.
