By Tim Bonfield
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MOUNT AUBURN - Christ Hospital scrambled to move nurses around Thursday and had to reschedule some surgeries after half the nurses in a post-surgery recovery unit called in sick in an apparent job protest.

The sickout came days after the hospital's parent, the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, announced a new recruitment bonus program.

The hospital is offering bonuses of up to $30,000 over three years to recruit and retain nurses and technicians in several cardiac and emergency services. However, nurses treating heart patients in the recovery room were not made eligible for the bonus.

Ten nurses called in sick, according to a Health Alliance statement. That's half the 20 nurses working the morning shift in the recovery area, said spokeswoman Gail Myers. As a result, seven of 88 surgeries that had been scheduled for the day were shifted to other days.

The hospital filled the gap by hiring agency nurses and reassigning nurses from other departments in Christ Hospital.

"This should not be blown out of proportion," Myers said. "Yes, it created an inconvenience, but throughout the day our patients got safe care."

For about four hours Thursday morning, Christ Hospital and University Hospital - both members of the Health Alliance - were "on diversion," according to the Hamilton County Communications Center. That means the hospitals were busy enough, or understaffed enough, to ask life squads carrying stable patients to divert to other hospitals.

However, the sickout was not a factor in either decision to go on diversion, Myers said.

The Health Alliance would not speculate why the nurses took the action. The recovery room nurses were not included in the bonus recruitment program because the program was focused on other types of critical care services that officials considered in short supply or in particularly high demand, Myers said.

The Health Alliance also would not say whether the nurses would be fired. Like most hospitals in town, Christ Hospital nurses are not unionized.

"We're evaluating the appropriate action to take with the nurses," Myers said.

The sickout is not expected to be a problem today.

"We have made sure we have coverage," Myers said.

Efforts to contact nurses who called in sick were not successful.

E-mail tbonfield@enquirer.com