Like many other contributors to St. Joseph Hospital, I received a letter recently from the president of St. Joseph Hospital, Dr. David O’Brien. The letter is purportedly a response to very specific claims that my union, the California Nurses Association (CNA), has made against St. Joseph Health in general and St. Joseph Hospital in particular. The letter Dr. O’Brien sent is disappointing and filled with generalizations, omissions and unnecessarily accusatory language directed at CNA. The defensive posture that St. Joseph Health has taken since CNA released its report in August speaks volumes about the company’s groupthink mentality. Dr. O’Brien, many people in Humboldt County are familiar with the ways that non-profit hospitals manipulate charity care data to inflate their own contributions thanks to an article from 2013 in Time magazine by journalist Steven Brill entitled “Bitter Pill.”

So, here are the specific issues raised by CNA that Dr. O’Brien has left unanswered: Does St. Joseph Health continue to ask the charitable Humboldt County community for donations while depositing millions of dollars into hedge funds in the Cayman Islands? Has St. Joseph Health put money into for-profit entities while actively soliciting donations from our already very generous Humboldt County community? Has St. Joseph Health been charged with violations of federal labor laws which support RNs’ rights to unionize? In 2013, did St. Joseph Hospital give only 1.22 percent of operating expenses toward charity care when the average for all major California Catholic Hospital systems is 2.57 percent? Do many RNs at St. Joseph Hospital believe there is a shortage of Alaris IV Pumps when the hospital census is elevated? Do RNs at St. Joseph Hospital believe there is a shortage of nursing aides to assist them with patient care?

In his letter to donors, dated Aug. 25 of this year, Dr. O’Brien had an opportunity to address the very specific claims made by some RNs at St. Joseph Hospital and the California Nurses Association with data and references but failed to do so. In the report about St. Joseph Health that the CNA released you will find the sources for all of their data listed at the bottom of each page. The information comes from a variety of sources including IRS forms and the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

St. Joseph Hospital is operated by many wonderful and caring nurses, doctors and support staff. In many areas of the hospital I see interactions with patients that warm my heart and fill me with love for our community. From nurses to house keepers to the folks that deliver clean linens, I see hard working people doing their best to help patients. When CNA released their report, I learned of the ways that the health system is squeezing our hospital and those of us who work in day to day operations. We all deserve a detailed response to the issues CNA has brought to light. I hope Dr. O’Brien will take this opportunity to address the data CNA has submitted with sourced data of his own. St. Joseph Health System will start to correct their course when they accept the reality that the California Nurses Association is not an adversary but instead a partner in the effort to bring about better patient care.

The California Nurses Association Report on St. Joseph Health can be found at: http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/pages/st.-joseph-health.