Nurses at Lower Bucks Hospital and Suburban Community Hospital are on strike. Here’s what to know.

Nearly 240 nurses in two hospitals outside of Philadelphia began a five-day strike Friday, the first time in more than three years that nurses in the region have walked out of work.

The strike at Lower Bucks Hospital and Suburban Community Hospital comes more than two months after the nurses’ union contracts expired, and after negotiations with management reached an impasse. The hospitals will remain open during the strike.

“To not be there for our community is a difficult decision for our nurses,” said Shannan Giambrone, an ICU nurse who has worked at Suburban Community for 23 years. “Unfortunately it’s come to that.”

Michelle Aliprantis, a spokesperson for Prime, called the strike “disappointing,” but said all of the hospital’s services would continue.

» READ MORE: Nurses picket outside Suburban Community, Lower Bucks hospitals amid union contract negotiations.

The last time hospital nurses went on strike in the Philly area was in November 2020, when early 800 nurses from St. Mary Medical Center walked off the job. The nurses returned to work at the Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic hospital in Bucks County after five days.

Here is what you need to know about the Prime strike:

About 240 nurses at two hospitals.

The 136 registered nurses at Lower Bucks and 96 nurses at Suburban Community are represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP, according to the union. Their contracts expired on Oct. 12.

Prime Healthcare Services Inc.

Based in Southern California, Prime Healthcare is one of the largest for-profit hospital systems in the United States, with more than 40 hospitals in 16 states. In Pennsylvania, Prime hospitals include Philadelphia’s Roxborough Memorial Hospital and Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol. Suburban Community Hospital in East Norriton is also part of the Prime system, but it is owned by the company’s nonprofit arm, Prime Healthcare Foundation.

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Earlier this week, Prime appears to have put the three hospitals for sale, according to an e-mailed notice from a Los Angeles investment bank. The notice did not identify the owner but the description of the three hospitals fits the local Prime locations.

The techs, medical assistants, and licensed vocational workers working at four Prime-owned Southern California hospitals went on a seven-day strike starting Wednesday.

Because their contract negotiations with Prime have reached an impasse.

The two main points of contention in contract negotiations are more staff and better health-care benefits.

Prime nurses say staffing levels are so low that the hospitals are unsafe. Nurses are required to care for too many patients at once, which contributes to staff burnout and increases the risk of medical error, said Giambrone, the ICU nurse.

“It’s impossible to take care of patients,” Giambrone told The Inquirer last week.

The union wants Prime to hire and retain more nurses so that each nurse cares for fewer patients at once. They have cited as a model the nurse staffing minimum law in California, where Prime’s headquarters are located. A similar bill passed the Pennsylvania State House earlier this year and has since the summer stalled in the Senate.

In September, Prime laid off more than a dozen nurses and therapy professionals who staffed a behavioral health unit at Suburban Community, WHYY News reported.

» READ MORE: Nurses at Suburban Community and Lower Bucks Hospital authorize strike amid contract negotiation stalemate

The union and Prime have also been unable to reach an agreement on health-care benefits. Prime requires its nurses to seek care at Prime facilities, but in recent years has cut services, making it harder to access care, Giambrone said. When they seek care outside of network, nurses have challenges getting reimbursed.

Prime says it is negotiating in good faith.

The health system has offered the nurses increased wages and improved health care benefits that are competitive with other hospitals in the area, said Aliprantis, the Prime spokesperson.

“It is disappointing that despite progress being made, the union has walked away from negotiations and has chosen to strike,” she said via email.

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All of them.

Both Lower Bucks and Suburban Community hospitals will remain open throughout the strike, Prime said.

“We are fully staffed with qualified temporary resources across our nursing and non-nursing departments,” Aliprantis said.