Unionized ChristianaCare doctors — members of the first healthcare union in Delaware — ratified their first contract with the Wilmington-based health system this week.
The contract covers three years and includes provisions to establish “formal structures for physician input on issues affecting clinical practice and patient care,” the union said in a statement.
The contract also establishes a procedure for physicians to file grievances if they feel the contract has been violated, and forms labor management committees to address workplace safety concerns, union officials said.
One 19-year-old was killed and another injured in a shooting at ChristianaCare’s Wilmington Hospital last week.
“This is a major step forward in ensuring physicians have a meaningful voice at ChristianaCare,” Nisha Gandhi, an advanced heart failure cardiologist at the health system, said in a statement.
A ChristianaCare spokesperson said the contract also included provisions against striking and “a mutual commitment to collaboration, stability and long-term partnership.”
ChristianaCare has medical locations in Delaware, Southeastern Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Attending physicians at ChristianaCare voted to unionize in 2024, citing increased workloads with little support for added administrative tasks. They were the first group of attending doctors to unionize in the Philadelphia area.
Since the 1980s, doctors have shifted from owning their own practices to opting for employment at hospitals and health systems. Just a quarter of physicians were self-employed in 2022, and unionization among physicians is growing.
Last year, hundreds of medical residents across several Philadelphia hospitals also voted to unionize, but unions of attending physicians, who have completed their medical training, are rarer.
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