MedStar Franklin nurses to hold rally for patient safety

Rally comes as Baltimore nurses prepare for union election

Registered nurses at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, in Baltimore, Md. will hold a rally on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026 to highlight unaddressed patient safety concerns - including short-staffing and lack of equipment and supplies - that have driven them to unionize, announced National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) today. The rally comes after nurses filed a petition on Sept. 10 with the National Labor Relations Board to hold union elections. That election has not been scheduled yet.

"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 note the poor staffing by MedStar Health landed both Medstar Franklin Square and MedStar Washington Hospital Center on a list of the longest ER visits in the country for 2025. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the national average for an ER visit is 162 minutes, but at MedStar Franklin the visits were 367 minutes, and for MedStar Washington Hospital Center, 377 minutes.

Who: RNs at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center
What: Rally for patient safety
When: Saturday, Sept. 19, 8 a.m.
Where: MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center | 9000 Franklin Square Dr., Baltimore, Md. (public sidewalk at Franklin Square Dr. and Hospital Dr.)

Nurses say they have witnessed aggressive union busting on the part of management. They note the not-for-profit hospital receives millions of dollars in tax breaks, as well as federal and state grants. According to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse, in 2025 alone MedStar Health spent $78.9 million in federal funding awards. Notably, according to their own financial records, MedStar made more than a billion dollars in 2024 and 2025.

Nurses say it is disgraceful that money that should be spent on patient care is going to pay for private consultants to attempt to silence nurses as they advocate for safe patient care.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.