The nursing shortage in New York is becoming more severe, according to a new workforce survey of hospitals around the state. The statewide vacancy rate for nurses was 8.8% in 2007, up from 6.38% in 2006, according to a study published yesterday by the Healthcare Association of New York State. By comparison, the overall unemployment rate in New York was 4.4% last year.

Nationwide, there is an 8.5% nurse vacancy rate, HANYS reported.

“The workforce shortage is not going away,” the group’s president, Daniel Sisto, said in a statement. “In fact, statistics show us that it will almost certainly get alarmingly worse.” HANYS, along with the New York Organization of Nurse Executives, has backed legislation that would improve recruitment and retention of faculty at nursing schools.

Plasma TVs, ‘Touchable Art’ at Children’s Suite

The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore has opened a $12 million infusion suite, where children with cancer and blood disorders will receive chemotherapy and other intravenous medications.

The 4,800-square-foot suite, a gift of the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, was designed by the architect David Rockwell, hospital officials said. The suite features five examination rooms and 11 infusion “bays,” each containing a plasma television. There is also “touchable art,” such as a periaktoi play wall where children can create images of animals by rotating triangular blocks.

Montefiore officials said the hospital is in the midst of redesigning the division of pediatric hematology and oncology, which has grown in recent years. Last year, nearly 2,500 infusions were administered there, up from 290 in 2004. Renovation of the hospital’s hematology and oncology inpatient unit is expected to be completed next year.

Mount Sinai, Lutheran Mull Cardiac Affiliation

Mount Sinai Hospital and Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn are eyeing a new partnership, under which the hospitals would run an affiliated cardiac unit.

The hospitals have requested permission from the state’s Department of Health to jointly operate the May Ellen and Gerald Ritter Diagnostic Cardiology Center, situated on Lutheran’s campus. Under the plan, patients at Lutheran who need specialty services could be “fast-tracked” at Mount Sinai, a hospital spokesman said.

In a joint statement, executives from the hospitals praised the partnership. “We are thrilled to partner with Mount Sinai and bring a new high-quality cardiac service to the Brooklyn community,” the director of Lutheran’s cardiac center, Dr. Robert Zaloom, said.

Unions Spar Over Nurse Members

A union that represents several hundred nurses at Peninsula Hospital in Queens is accusing the Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union of attempting to “raid” its members.

Officials from the New York State Nurses Association said 1199 is attempting to build its ranks “by poaching members from others in the house of labor,” according to a statement issued by NYSNA. The union of nurses is in the midst of negotiating a new contract for about 200 nurses, whose contracts expired April 30.

1199 officials disputed the accusation. At least one nurse at Peninsula, Christine Logue, confirmed that nurses initiated the discussion. She said the nurses became frustrated when their union failed to negotiate a pension plan for them. “We felt they were too lax in our concerns,” she said. “Nobody forced anything upon us.”

Study: Television Limits Interaction Between Babies, Mothers

Babies from low-income families who are exposed to television and video have limited verbal interactions with their mothers, according to new research by a group of researchers from New York University’s School of Medicine.

In the study, published this month in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, researchers said 97% of mothers surveyed reported that their children watched about two hours of television or video daily. About half of the programs watched by the babies were not intended for children.

“Our conclusions are especially significant because parent-infant interactions have huge ramifications for early child development,” the lead author and the director of clinical research for general and developmental-behavioral pediatrics at NYU’s School of Medicine, Dr. Alan Mendelsohn, said in a statement.

Diabetes Foundation Names Two to Board

The Diabetes Research Institute Foundation has appointed two New Yorkers, Alan Kava and Diane Cohen, to its northeast regional board of directors.

Mr. Kava is the chief financial officer of the Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds, a division of Goldman Sachs, where he became a managing director in 2002. Ms. Cohen, a longtime corporate consultant, became active in the foundation’s work when her 16-year-old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. She is also a member of the foundation’s D.R.E.a.M.S. in the City benefit committee.

The Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, which funds research at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, was established in 1971 by parents of children with diabetes.

esolomont@nysun.com