Nurses at Armstrong County Memorial Hospital said Wednesday they are set to strike March 13.

The union representing registered nurses at the hospital, ACMH Nurses United, issued a strike notice to the hospital Wednesday, saying they will begin striking at 7 a.m. March 13, according to a statement issued by the union.

ACMH Nurses United in January voted almost unanimously to authorize a strike, claiming at that time negotiations between the union and the hospital had stalled. Most at issue in negotiations, the union said in January, were recruitment and retention of staff.

The union said Wednesday the hospital lost more than 40 nurses since 2021, claiming they left for other hospitals in the region paying $6 more per hour.

Adding more patients to a nurse’s workload increases the chances of death for surgical patients, the union claimed, with increased errors, increased patient complications and decreased patient satisfaction being more likely each time a nurse has more than four patients.

The hospital, in a statement, accused the nurses union of making “material misstatements about the hospital and about these negotiations.” In the statement, the hospital said it has made efforts to recruit nurses, but has been stymied by “a national nursing shortage,” and said the strike would not be about patient care.

“The union has no outstanding proposals that impact on patient care,” the statement reads. “Rather, the disagreement between the parties is almost exclusively over money.”

Cassie Wood, a registered nurse who serves as the union president, said in a statement the hospital is “hemorrhaging nurses.” She said a strike is “the last thing” nurses want, but claimed the hospital’s failure to retain nurses threatens their ability to provide care.

“We delivered the strike notice because we felt we had no other choice,” Wood said in the statement. “We want to improve conditions at the bedside, so that our nurses will stay and our patients will receive the high quality care they deserve.”