2025 -- H 5207

========

LC000760

========

     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2025

____________

H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

CONGRATULATING RESIDENT PHYSICIANS AND FELLOWS AFFILIATED WITH

BROWN UNIVERSITY ON THEIR SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS TO ORGANIZE UNIONS

AT RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL-BROWN UNIVERSITY HEALTH AND CARE NEW

ENGLAND HOSPITALS

     Introduced By: Representatives Stewart, Shekarchi, Blazejewski, Handy, Donovan,
Fogarty, Ajello, Morales, Kislak, and Cruz

     Date Introduced: January 28, 2025

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, 76 to 89

percent of medical school graduates leave school with an average of $203,062 in total education

debt; and

     WHEREAS, The journey to become a doctor does not conclude with earning a degree in

medicine; instead, it continues with a medical residency and further postgraduate training; and

     WHEREAS, Resident physicians and fellows are licensed, employed, and practicing

medicine under supervision and mentorship, typically for three to seven years, through which

they gain invaluable hands-on medical expertise; and

     WHEREAS, The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has asserted that

residency programs must ensure that residents and fellows work in environments that support

patient safety, resident and fellow education, and physician well-being; and

     WHEREAS, The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has required

that clinical and educational work hours must be limited to no more than 80 hours per week,

averaged over a four-week period in an effort to foster safer educational environments; and

     WHEREAS, Despite reforms, resident physicians and fellows who began their training

during the COVID-19 pandemic confronted uniquely challenging educational environments; and

     WHEREAS, Nationwide, the adverse effects of the pandemic included sicker and more

patients, a national and local shortage of physicians, and effects that have continued long after the

pandemic subsided; and

     WHEREAS, The U.S. healthcare system’s dependence on for-profit private insurance

companies has an out-sized influence on the working conditions of physicians and patient care;

and

     WHEREAS, First-year physicians employed at both RIH-Brown University Health and at

Care New England hospitals currently make lower annual salaries than their counterparts who

have organized into a union at Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance; and

     WHEREAS, Resident physicians and fellows are cost burdened by higher cost-of-living,

including increasing rent, and by personally-incurred professional expenses such as board exams;

and

     WHEREAS, The National Labor Relations Board ruled in 1999 that resident physicians

are employees entitled to the right to organize and collectively bargain; and

     WHEREAS, In recognition of the aforementioned facts, resident physicians and fellows

across the United States have been organizing unions, and the number represented by the

Committee of Interns and Residents has doubled since 2019, to more than 34,000 as of January 1,

2025; and

     WHEREAS, The unionization question went to a vote because Rhode Island Hospital-

Brown University Health and Care New England did not voluntarily recognize residents as a

union; now, therefore it be

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby

honors and congratulates the Resident Physicians and Fellows with RIH-Brown University

Health and at Care New England Hospitals on their successful campaigns to organize unions

affiliated with the Committee of Interns and Residents under the Service Employees International

Union, and hopes, as one of just a few physician unions in the State of Rhode Island, their efforts

can help to remedy the on-going healthcare crisis in the State; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to William Levesque MD, Laura Schwartz MD,

Diana Sibai MD, Felicia Sun MD, MPhil, Kit Quain MD, Brian Drury, MD, Taylor Walker MD,

MPH, CIR-SEIU President, Michel Horne, CIR-SEIU Organizer, Katie Coombs, CIR-SEIU

Organizer.

========

LC000760

========

LC000760 - Page 2 of 2