FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2025
CONTACT: Megan Othersen Gorman / Megan Gorman / (215) 817-5781
Ashley Berry Johnson / Ashley Johnson / (267) 990-5505
PASNAP Calls for Transparency, Safe Staffing, and Investment in Bedside Care Following Announcement of Independence Health System–WVU Medicine Merger
BUTLER, PA — The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), representing more than 750 nurses and technical professionals at Butler Memorial Hospital and more than 11,000 frontline nurses and allied health professionals across the Commonwealth, calls for full transparency, improved staffing, and meaningful investments in bedside care following today’s announcement that Butler Memorial/Independence Health System will merge with West Virginia University Health System (WVU Medicine).
PASNAP members at Butler Memorial Hospital have weathered years of uncertainty — from leadership changes and financial instability to chronic understaffing, deep cuts to benefits and resources, and alarmingly high turnover – since their hospital merged with Excela Health in January 2023 to form Independence Health System.
“Our wages have been stagnant, our benefits have been taken away from us, and many of our colleagues have left,” said Maura Williams, a surgical tech at Butler and member of Butler Techs United, late last month.
“Resource cuts have become the norm. Staff are leaving faster than they can be replaced. And the pressure on those of us who remain to care for our community in the way every patient needs and deserves to be cared for grows by the day,” said Donnie Geibel, CNMT, RTN, a longtime Butler Memorial Nuclear Medicine Technologist, Butler Techs United member, and lifetime resident of Butler.
“Our first priority is — and always will be — our patients,” says longtime Butler Memorial ICU nurse Tammy May, RN, president of Pennsylvania Independent Nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital. “That is true at the bedside and it is true now, as we digest this news.”
With the news of this latest merger, PASNAP nurses and allied professionals at Butler Memorial are optimistic that the leadership at WVU Medicine will demonstrate a renewed commitment to the patients and community we serve.
We need investment in hospital employees, stabilization of the workforce, and stabilization of the hospital and health system as a whole. We call on WVU Medicine and Independence together to:
-
Retain Current Staff: No layoffs, pay cuts, or reduction of benefits for nurses, techs, and other frontline professionals as a result of the merger.
-
Invest in Patient Care: Dedicated funds for equipment, training, and maintaining essential services in the Butler community.
-
Collaborate with frontline caregivers. Our hospital and its patient community cannot afford another merger that leaves caregivers shouldering a patient care crisis of the system’s own making.
“Butler Memorial caregivers have held our hospital together through every crisis,” says May. “We will advocate relentlessly to make sure this merger strengthens care instead of further destabilizing it.”
###
Pennsylvania Independent Nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital and Butler Techs United are affiliates of PASNAP, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which represents more than 11,000 frontline nurses and healthcare professionals across Pennsylvania and was founded on the belief that patients do better when critical care staff have a voice to advocate for their patients and themselves.
