‘Full of wins’: See what South Florida RNs in Miami-Dade, Broward got in new deal
Registered nurses at three South Florida hospitals have secured a new contract with better pay and changes that the union says is expected to improve patient safety and nurse retention rates.
Over 1,000 RNs across Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, Coral Gables Hospital and Florida Medical Center in Lauderdale Lakes “voted overwhelmingly in favor” of ratifying the new contracts this week, according to National Nurses United.
The vote comes about a week after a planned strike was halted at the hospitals following a tentative deal made with operator Healthcare Systems of America, or HSA. It’s a win for nurses who said they faced challenging working conditions at the hospitals long before HSA took over operations from cash-crunched Steward Health Care System in 2024.
“When we stand together, we win,” Leroy Desance, an ICU RN at Coral Gables Hospital, said in a statement. “HSA wants to try to continue the same practices that Steward was using, but our new contract proves things can get better when people work together.”
What is in the new contract for registered nurses
As part of the deal, RNs secured minimum across-the-board raises of 12.25% over the term of the three-year contract, with retroactive pay stretching back to Oct. 1, 2025, according to National Nurses United. The new contract runs through Jan. 13, 2029.
“After months of bargaining, this three-year agreement reflects HSA’s respect for the dedication of our nurses and supports the continued ability to deliver high-quality care to our patients,” Healthcare Systems of America told the Miami Herald in a statement a few days after the tentative, and now ratified, deal was announced.
“The agreement includes guaranteed salary increases for all nurses and expanded opportunities for nurse participation in decisions that impact patient care and key hospital operations. HSA is grateful for the professionalism of our nursing teams and remains committed to providing safe, high-quality care to the South Florida community.”
National Nurses United, which represents more than 224,000 registered nurses in the country, said the new contract promotes safer staffing measures in critical care units, gives nurses more input on patient safety conversations and cements “new improved language protecting nurses who speak out for patient safety.”
South Florida RNs say they won safer staffing levels. What it means
What will that look like?
As one example, the contract tries to limit how many patients an RN can care for at a time to reduce patient safety risk.
Before a RN in the ICU can be assigned a third patient, for example, the supervising nurse would need to take on two patients of their own, as the Herald has previously reported. Union leaders hope the rule will encourage management to increase staffing, which in turn is expected to improve patient safety.
No federal mandates exist to regulate nurse-to-patient ratios at hospitals. But studies show that when registered nurses are forced to care for too many patients at one time, patients are at a higher risk for preventable medical errors, complications, falls, injuries and death. When a registered nurse has to care for more than four surgical patients at a time, for example, the risk of a patient dying within 30 days goes up by 7%, according to the union.
‘Full of wins,’ Palmetto General union rep says
Union members are hopeful the new contract will help improve conditions, both for nurses and patients, at the hospitals. The pay bump also comes as a relief for nurses as the cost-of-living in South Florida continues to rise.
Under Steward, nurses had several complaints about how their hospitals were being run. Lack of supplies. Broken equipment. Cut or reduced hours. Delayed payments to vendors and staff.
Employees at the South Florida hospitals said they navigated it all while under Steward’s management, similar to other Steward-run hospitals across the country. While some things — like getting paid on time — have improved at the hospitals under HSA, other working conditions have not, according to union members, who have referred to the new operators as “Steward 2.0.”
Still, nurses like Lazaro Garcia, an RN who works in Palmetto General’s ICU unit, are hoping to see more change now that nurses have secured a new deal.
“This contract is full of wins for nurses and our patients,” Garcia, who also serves as Palmetto’s chief representative for the union, said in a statement. “We showed management we were prepared to strike to reach a deal, and now, we have the deal done and a contract that will continue to improve our hospitals.”
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This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 12:47 PM.
