Jan. 5 and 6—Nurse Rallies at 8:00 a.m Prior to Hearings
RNs mobilize for approval of sale to save critically needed, essential care at St. Francis and St. Vincent’s hospitals

Registered nurses from Daughters of Charity hospitals will give testimony at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday Jan 5, and Tuesday Jan. 6 respectively in their continued fight to save their hospitals and preserve essential patient care services in their communities, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) announced today. CNA/NNU represents 1,800 nurses at four of the six affected hospitals.
 
Rallies will be held prior to the start of the hearings scheduled for 10:00 a.m., where the RNs will testify to share the findings from an impact report released mid-December, by CNA/NNU outlining the crucial healthcare services that would be lost in the event of hospital closures.

The Attorney General’s office is holding the six public hearings throughout the week, in each of the communities served by one of the Daughters of Charity Hospitals: Los Angeles, Lynwood, San Jose, Gilroy, Moss Beach, and Daly City, Ca.
 
"Prime Healthcare signed an agreement that guarantees that these hospitals will continue to provide vital health services to the communities surrounding them, while no other buyer has stepped forward and offered any commitments whatsoever," said Christine Chung a St. Vincent RN.

Los Angeles Hearings

• Monday, Jan. 5, Rally at 8:00 a.m., Hearing at 10:00 a.m.— St. Francis Medical Center
  Bateman Hall Auditorium, 11331 Ernestine Ave., Lynwood, CA 90262
• Tuesday, Jan 6, Rally at 8:00 a.m., Hearing at 10:00 a.m.— St. Vincent Medical Center
  Seton Hall Auditorium, 262 South Lake St., Los Angeles, CA 90057

“In 2013 in Los Angeles St. Francis and St. Vincent's Medical Center Emergency Room combined treated almost 85,000 patients" said St. Vincent’s RN, Louisa Ramerez.  "The sale must be approved because if these Hospitals closed you have yourself a major public health crisis. Prime has as a condition of the sale to keep these emergency rooms open.  This is critical for our communities."
 
Daughters of Charity Hospitals are operated as non-profit entities, and the proposed sale to Prime requires the approval of the Attorney General, who has the legal responsibility to ensure that the approval or non-approval of any sale of a non-profit hospital is in the public interest.
 
In early 2014, when confronted by the likelihood of sale, DCHS nurses formulated a set of principles that they determined a transaction must embody in order 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.

The RNs made these principles known to all prospective purchasers who would agree to listen. Of those, only Prime satisfied the conditions necessary to guarantee safe patient care and continued community access to these essential institutions of public health.
 
The California chapter of the National Organization for Women joined the nurses calling for the approval of the sale to Prime in a letter to the Attorney General stating that “expanding women’s reproductive healthcare access is in the public interest.”  Not only will (the sale) enable these hospitals to continue to provide needed comprehensive healthcare services to the communities they currently serve; the conditionally approved sale to Prime Healthcare will also expand much needed reproductive healthcare services to the same community.”
 
Nurses also considered a proposal from a Wall Street private equity firm, Blue Wolf Capital, and concluded that it failed to satisfy the conditions necessary to protect patients and communities. Notably, the company was not interested in the long term survival of a hospital system, but in the restructuring and re-sale of the system including substantial changes to vital healthcare services.
 
Read the Impact Report detailing how closure of Daughters of Charity hospitals would dramatically reduce patient access to essential healthcare services.

Read statements by NOW California and the NAACP, who also support the sale of Daughters of Charity hospitals to Prime Healthcare.

Bay Area Hearings Jan 7, 8, 9

• Wednesday Jan. 7, 10:00 a.m. O’Connor Hospital
  O’Connor Hospital Medical Office Building, 2101 Forest Ave., San Jose, CA 95128
• Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, 10:00 a.m.—Saint Louise Regional Hospital
  Gilroy City Hall, Council Chambers 7351 Rosanna St., Gilroy, CA 95020
• Friday, Jan. 9, 9:00 a.m., Seton Medical Center Coastside
  Seton Medical Center-Coastside, 600 Marine Blvd., Moss Beach, CA 94038
• Friday, Jan 9, 1:00 p.m. Seton Medical Center
  Seton Medical Center, Merced Room, 145 Lake Merced Blvd., Daly City, CA 94015.