New website enables residents to call out hospital for focusing on profits

Northeast Michigan citizens who are worried about potentially devastating changes at Alpena Regional Medical Center can now take action by signing an online petition at ARMCwatch.org. The website details why “Something’s fishy at ARMC” and features a fish chasing a hook baited with a golden dollar sign.  

“The nurses are overwhelmed by the support we’re getting from the community and also all the concern people are expressing about what’s going on at the hospital,” said Pam Craner, RN, who is facing a pay cut of up to 50 percent and huge increases in health care costs along with some of the other ARMC nurses. “We’re all worried about how the patients and the whole area will be affected. None of it makes sense, because the hospital is financially stable.”

Nearly 100 people attended a rally to show support for the ARMC nurses earlier this month. The nurses, retirees and other community members have expressed fear and confusion about multiple aspects of what’s happening at the hospital, including that:

• Although the hospital is growing and doing well financially, administrators are trying to cut the wages of some vital nursing staff and other workers so badly that they won’t be able to make a living.
  
  
• Hospital officials seem to have stopped putting patients first and stopped respecting the fact that the medical center belongs to the community – not them.
  
  
• Rumors are coming from multiple sources that the hospital might be sold soon and taken out of the community’s hands.

“What ARMC officials are doing to the hard-working nurses that so many of us rely on is shameful,” said Art Fournier, Pastor of Under His Wings Christian Fellowship in Alpena. “The hospital administrators should remember that they have a responsibility to run the hospital for the benefit of the community. It’s not just nurses and patients like me who could be affected by ARMC leaders’ unfair practices. Our whole region could suffer if we lose our high-quality nurses or even our hospital itself.”

The petition calling on ARMC CEO Karmon Bjella to treat the nurses fairly and put patients over profits is at ARMCwatch.org. A downloadable flier and other information are also available there.

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