Registered nurses at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center in Baltimore will rally Saturday to advocate for patient safety and raise support for their efforts to unionize.
Nurses filed a petition on Sept. 10 with the National Labor Relations Board to hold union elections. National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) explained unaddressed patient safety concerns, including short-staffing and lack of equipment and supplies, led to the unionization effort and Saturday’s rally. Nurses also allege management has engaged in union-busting behavior.
“We are compelled to form a union because we see deteriorating conditions in our hospital,” said Katie Stancil-Ervin, RN in the emergency department. “In the ER we are seeing patients held for hours without being admitted because there are not enough nurses in the units. We are seeing intensive care unit nurses taking care of three patients at a time, when they should have no more than two patients. We have broken equipment in the operating room that delays care. These chronic problems must be dealt with and MedStar has not been willing to do that. That is why we need a strong union contract to address these patient safety issues.”
Nurses cited the fact that both MedStar Franklin Square and MedStar Washington Hospital Center landed on a list of the longest ER visits in the country for 2025 as evidence supporting their complaints that MedStar Health has serious staffing issues. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the national average for an ER visit is 162 minutes. MedStar Franklin’s visits averaged 367 minutes, and MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s visits were 377 minutes, both more than twice the national average, the list from Becker’s Hospital Review found.
MedStar hospitals are not-for-profit institutions. As such, nurses pointed out they receive millions of dollars in tax breaks, federal and state grants. MedStar spent $78.9 million in federal funding awards in 2025, and made more than a billion dollars in 2024 and 2025.
The Nurses’ Rally for Patient Safety will take place at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19 at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, 9000 Franklin Square Drive, Baltimore. They will be on the public sidewalk at Franklin Square Drive and Hospital Drive.
