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Public Hearings on Future of Bay Area Daughters of Charity Hospitals Continue Friday

RNs, community to rally, testify for approval of sale to save critically needed care for underserved at Seton hospitals

DALY CITY/MOSS BEACH— Building on momentum gathered by hundreds of registered nurses who mobilized at Daughters of Charity hospitals earlier this week, nurses and community organizations are turning out again Friday at Seton Medical Center (Daly City) and Seton Coastside (Moss Beach). They will be gathering for the fifth day of rallies and Attorney General public hearings in support of the proposed sale of six Daughters of Charity hospitals to Prime Healthcare.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) represents 1,800 nurses at four of the six hospitals and is part of a broad coalition that includes environmental, community and civil rights groups that endorse the sale to avert a potentially catastrophic health care crisis in two of California's largest metropolitan areas.

Friday's events will begin in Moss Beach with a 9 a.m. hearing at Seton Medical Center Coastside, and continue at noon, in Daly City, where RNs will hold a rally at the main Seton Medical Center location, before the 1 p.m. hearing there.

"Our hospital provides vital services to an underserved community who will be severely affected by a closure," says Debra Amour, an RN who works at Seton Medical Center. "We provided a quarter of intensive care services in the area and of the patients who relied on lifesaving care, a significant majority identified as Asian or Latino and one-third were enrolled in Medi-Cal, the highest proportion for any hospital in the market."

Seton Medical Center Coastside also treated 3,381 emergency department patients in 2013.

Rally Friday, Jan. 9, Seton Medical Center Coastside— NO RALLY, Hearing at 9:00 a.m
Seton Medical Center-Coastside, 600 Marine Blvd., Moss Beach, CA 94038
Friday, Jan 9, Seton Medical Center—Rally at Noon, Hearing at 1:00 p.m.
Seton Medical Center, Merced Room, 145 Lake Merced Blvd., Daly City, CA 94015.

Daughters of Charity Hospitals are operated as non-profits, the sale of which requires the approval of the Attorney General, who must determine if the transaction is in the public interest.

Prime is the only viable offer that would avert closure, and stave off this potential loss of essential healthcare services. With the Daughters of Charity Health System losing nearly $10 million a month, Prime has committed to keep all six hospitals open for a minimum of five years, protect most of the existing 7600 jobs, pay off nearly $750 million in tax-exempt bonds, pension and other debts, and commit an additional $150 million to hospital improvements.

When DCHS first learned of the effort to sell in 2014, nurses came up with a set of guidelines designed to protect the hospitals, patients, and the community. These included: (1) operate all DCHS hospitals as acute care facilities, (2) maintain all existing hospital services, (3) give reasonable assurances against a short-term bankruptcy, (4) keep all promises made to retirees, and (5) honor caregivers' right to collectively bargain for their mutual aid and patient protection.

Of interested buyers, only Prime satisfied these principles, although nurses also considered a proposal from a Wall Street private equity firm, Blue Wolf Capital. Blue Wolf, which has a reputation for buying, gutting and reselling businesses for quick profit, failed to satisfy the nurses' requirements.