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Nurses accuse Queen of the Valley, St. Joseph Health of profits before people
The California Nurses Association held a press conference in Napa on Wednesday to accuse St. Joseph Health, the parent of Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, of degrading patient care in pursuit of profits.
Once run by Catholic nuns, the organization is now a large business enterprise that has lost its “moral compass,” the union charged in a report titled “Falling from Grace.”
The report says that St. Joseph Health, based in Irvine:
-- Reaped millions in tax subsidies from California taxpayers, while providing among the lowest amount of charity care of any Catholic system.
-- Invested patient care and tax-subsidized funds into for-profit companies, including hedge funds in the Cayman Islands.
-- Launched a system-wide campaign to illegally restrict the rights of its RNs to organize a union.
-- Imposed sweeping cuts in disability, medical leave, and retirement security on thousands of St. Joseph Health employees, while paying exorbitant executive salaries and benefits.
More than 65 union nurses and supporters attended the event on Wednesday at the Elks Lodge, along with Mariko Yamada, Napa’s former Assembly representative who is a candidate for state Senate; Davis City Councilmember Dan Wolk who is running for Assembly; John Moreno, staff for Assemblymember Bill Dodd, and Tracy Krumpen, staff for Sen. Lois Wolk.
The California Nurses Association and National Nurses United are also questioning the proposed merger between St. Joseph Health and another Catholic hospital chain, Providence Health & Services. They are asking California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the Federal Trade Commission and other regulatory agencies to ensure “patient protections and nurses’ rights are not infringed.”
The nurses’ broad criticisms were rebuffed by Walt Mickens, Queen of the Valley’s CEO, and Nisha Morris, director of media relations for St. Joseph Health.
“While it’s true that healthcare is changing dramatically and we have had to make difficult decisions, our commitment to our community and our employees absolutely has not changed,” Mickens said in an email. “The same mission and values that have always defined us are alive and well and here to stay.”
“We absolutely do not agree” that the Queen is putting profits before health care, he said. “In fact, at a time when hospitals are getting paid less to do more, we were still able to invest over $22.2 million in the Napa County community in 2014.”
Mickens also said the CNA had “grossly understated our charity care contributions. At a time when hospitals are getting paid less to do more, the hospital actually spent 34.2 percent of its operating income on charity care and community benefit in fiscal year 2013.”
“We don’t agree with CNAs interpretation of the data,” wrote Morris, who said St. Joseph would have a fuller response once it has analyzed the union’s allegations.
“Nurses love working for St. Joseph Health,” said CNA Co-President Zenei Cortez, RN. “Unfortunately, we believe the health system has lost its moral compass and transformed itself into a corporate body more interested in profit,” she said.
“We need to take action and save St. Joseph Health from itself,” said Leigh Glasgow, a registered nurse who has worked at the Queen for five years. Sixty-eight nurses have left the Queen in the past two years, she said.
St. Joseph Health has engaged in a “systematic campaign to misinform, harass and intimidate nurses” as they attempt to unionize throughout the state, said Glasgow. Some nurses cited the nurses’ lack of a contract at the Queen more than two years after RNs voted to unionize.
In his statement, Mickens said, “We are committed to reaching a mutually acceptable agreement through constructive, good faith bargaining that our nurses can support.”
“While we have reached tentative agreements” on some issues, “compensation and non-health care benefits still remain open and are the major barriers to reaching an agreement,” Mickens said.
During the press conference, registered nurse Dee Glass, who had worked at the Queen since 2009, said she was injured when a patient grabbed her arm and twisted it severely. She is now on disability. “I got hurt because there wasn’t enough staff,” she said.
Napa businessman Kent Gardella, who is married to a nurse who works at the Queen, said he thought the hospital was always proud to give quality care, but during recent visits, traveling nurses took care of him.
“They don’t have the commitments to the community,” he said. It appears that local nurses “are being kicked out” of the Queen, he said.
Regarding the planned merger of St. Joseph with Providence, CNA Co-President Zenei Cortez, RN, said, “We are opposed to any and all mergers that don’t guarantee our patients and the community we serve a higher standard of care.”
This merger must ensure that all the hospitals remain open, and that all jobs and services are maintained,” Cortez said.
The proposed merger, announced late last month, would create one of the largest Catholic hospital systems in the U.S. Providence currently operates 34 hospitals and 500 clinics in Alaska, California, Montana, Oregon and Washington. St. Joseph Health runs 16 hospitals in California, New Mexico, and Texas.
Together, the new system would have an especially large footprint in California, and a near monopoly in some regions—exactly why the California attorney general should intervene, said the CNA.