May 22, 2026 —
Members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) union at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh picketed outside the hospital Thursday, demanding staffing safety and limits on the use of artificial intelligence in the new contract.
A previous agreement between CVPH and NYSNA, which represents about 900 nurses, physical therapists, IT workers and other professionals, expired in December. Since then, they have held more than a dozen rounds of negotiations about the new project. Union officials said the big issue has to do with nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.
“Last year, management unilaterally increased safe staffing ratios,” Sean Baker, a nurse on the medical-surgical unit and chairman of the hospital’s staffing committee, said in a press conference. Baker said CVPH has increased the number of patients per nurse on the unit from four to five.
“We said no. They wouldn’t listen,” she said. “As we now prepare to update our staffing plans, NYSNA nurses are concerned that hospital administrators will further deteriorate safe staffing ratios, making them even less safe.”
Chris Sweese, a longtime CVPH nurse, said high ratios also hurt nurse retention. He works in the emergency department, where the ratio can be eight to 10 patients to one nurse.
“We spend time and money training people, but then they can’t stand it anymore and leave,” he said. “We were left with a group of new nurses with no one to train or mentor them.”
NYSNA members are calling for staffing ratios to be specified in new contracts. Unions are also fighting to preserve the interests of their members.
Limits of artificial intelligence
Demands for safe staffing and good health insurance have been part of these contract negotiations for years. A newer issue is the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
Vicki Davis Corson, a registered nurse at CVPH and NYSNA’s eastern regional director, said the union does not want AI to replace bedside nurses.
“People need people. They need people who care, people who have compassion to help them through difficult times in their lives.”
There are other concerns about AI. A recent joint study by Harvard University and Stanford University found that even the leading AI models used in clinical practice make critical errors in patient care in up to 15% of cases.
Ransley Garrow, a desktop engineer in the CVPH IT department, said most of them were errors of omission, and the AI did not recommend follow-up care when needed. This is not good for nurses, he said.
“Overworked nurses are being put in the position of having to double-check that the AI models are not making mistakes while caring for patients,” he said. “Tired or overworked nurses don’t easily notice these mistakes.”
This means that union leaders are also seeking restrictions on the use of AI in contracts.
The hospital will respond
CVPH President Michel LeBeau said in a statement that the hospital is negotiating with the best interests of its employees, patients and community in mind.
“The negotiation process is difficult under the best of circumstances,” she continued. “In today’s health care environment, increasing local, state and federal pressures are forcing us to rethink how we deliver essential care now and in the future, making it more difficult and important than ever to ensure that patients and communities continue to receive the care they need.”
Davis Corson said she hopes hospital leaders will come up with something acceptable to the union at the next bargaining session, but she’s not confident. She said there was a possibility of a strike.
“We’re not there yet, but we’re working towards it.”
CVPH and NYSNA are scheduled to return to the negotiating table on June 10th.
NYSNA members at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake and Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone are also working toward new contracts. So far this year, NYSNA members have signed contracts with Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, Carthage Regional Hospital, Claxton Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg and Elizabethtown Community Hospital.
