Registered nurses applaud Monday’s announcement by Calais Regional Hospital’s (CRH) CEO Rod Boula that Quorum Health Resources will no longer provide management services to CRH, the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA) announced today.

Nurses say the announcement is a big victory for CRH employees and the community, who have fought for years to rid CRH of the Tennessee-based management company that has a history of reducing services in order to increase profits.  Public documents show that CRH had paid nearly $1 million per year to Quorum to manage the facility, and RNs and community members had long been saying the fee to Quorum should have been spent locally, on patients who deserve access to full services.

“Today’s news shows that what we have been saying all along is true: Quorum takes more from our hospital and our community than it gives. It is long past time that we got rid of Quorum,” said Maureen Hayward, RN and MSNA Chief Steward at CRH. “We wish this had happened a long ago, but better late than never.”

Calls for changes in CRH’s relationship to Quorum have grown louder over the past year, since the hospital announced its plans to close its Obstetrics unit. In response, the Calais City Council unanimously passed a vote of “no confidence” in the hospital’s board of directors and called on them to resign. Since last summer, CRH has also closed its Cardiac Rehab department and also the “Rose Room,” an outpatient infusion center serving chemotherapy patients and others.

“We have a long way to go to rebuild our hospital’s relationship to our community. But this is a good first step,” said Hayward.

“We have been fighting Quorum in Calais for decades, so this is great news and I’m so happy for everyone there,” said MSNA President Cokie Giles, RN. “We see how Quorum treats people across the country. How they treat people in Maine is no different.

“The Maine State Nurses Association believes that everyone deserves a single high standard of safe, therapeutic care in their own community. Getting rid of Quorum in Calais means one less obstacle toward meeting that goal.”