Nurses, techs decry Temple Hospital decision to move the employee health clinic from its main campus.

Temple University Hospital unionized staff members rallied Thursday to protest management’s decision to move a clinic where they can seek job-related care to a location three miles away from the health system’s main campus on North Broad Street.

About 50 nurses, pharmacists, and medical technicians gathered to show they felt unappreciated by Temple’s decision to move an occupational health clinic that serves employees injured on the job and those who need employment-related vaccines and screenings.

Temple is moving the clinic to its Northeastern Campus in Port Richmond. Employees can still visit the emergency department on the main campus for urgent care.

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The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP, the union representing Temple nurses and other medical staffers, organized the rally.

Speakers shared personal examples of times when they used occupational health services and said the move makes them feel undervalued.

About five months ago, Carlos Aviles, a pharmacy technician at Temple, broke his arm on the job. He continued working during his recovery, which he credited to the availability of on-site services.

He believes he wouldn’t have been able to continue doing his work if he had to travel back and forth to the Northeastern Campus.

“My team here, through occupational health services, [was] able to give me physical therapy, able to give me services, pain management,” said Aviles, the president of the allied professionals union. “Now you’re telling me I’m not important.”

Aviles also worries that sending employees to the already busy ED at Temple Hospital will create longer wait times for patients from the community.

The move is slated for July 31, according to PASNAP.

In 2022, Temple Hospital’s occupational health clinic saw nearly 4,300 visits, according to hospital data obtained by PASNAP. Almost half came in for routine vaccinations. Another third visited for workups needed for employment and fitness testing.

On-the-job injuries, exposures to hazardous materials, and related follow-up appointments prompted 850 visits, accounting for 20% of annual visits to the clinic.

Democratic State Sen. Sharif Street of North Philadelphia, Philadelphia City Councilmembers Cindy Bass and Jim Harrity, and Democratic nominee for City Council at-large Rue Landau joined the rally.

“We are demanding services, support, help for the workers here,” Bass told the crowd. She chairs the council’s Public Health and Human Services Committee.

Temple aims to create additional space for its HIV service and a burn unit by moving the occupational health clinic, the hospital said in a statement.

The current location of the occupational health clinic was the only space available to accommodate the expansion, it noted.

“Employees requiring nonurgent and routine [Occupational] Health services will be able to receive that care — and at a bigger location with more clinicians in a more comfortable environment — at our Northeastern Campus,” the statement said.

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At the rally, speakers said the move could deter staffers from reporting on-the-job injuries.

Mary Adamson, an ICU nurse at Temple, said she once went to occupational health after being pricked by a used needle. If she had to leave her patients and colleagues to make the trip to Northeastern, she said she wouldn’t have gone.

Thursday’s rally came about seven months after Temple and the hospital’s nurses settled a contentious round of contract negotiations that led union members to authorize a strike.

Adams, president of the hospital’s nurses union, noted that the peace between the hospital and the union was short-lived.

“I didn’t think we’d have to be out here so soon,” Adamson said. “But here we are.”