RNs Challenge CHS Buyout of Health Management Assoc

Nurses to Unveil New Data Showing Effects of CHS-HMA

Monopoly on Patient Access to Needed Medical Care

Registered nurses from around the U.S. will hold a press conference Wednesday, January 8 in Naples, Fl. before a vote by shareholders of the Health Management Associates chain, challenging a buyout of HMA by Community Health Systems that would create a massive hospital monopoly they say would threaten patient access and quality of care.

What: Press Conference with RNs opposing CHS-HMA merger

When: Wednesday, January 8, 2014, 8 a.m.

Where: Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort Naples, 2600 Tiburón Drive, Naples, Fl.

National Nurses United, the nation’s largest organization of nurses which opposes the merger, will also present new research data further documenting the dangers to public access to needed care presented by the buyout.

The $7 billion CHS proposes to spend on the merger, say RNs, is money diverted from safe patient care and improved patient services in hospitals already plagued with widespread patient care concerns. RNs from West Virginia, Ohio, California, Pennsylvania, and Florida are expected to speak out about patient care concerns at the press conference.

If approved the CHS acquisition of HMA would create the largest hospital chain in the U.S. controlling 206 hospitals, mostly in rural communities where patients would have no other options for hospital care, making those communities vulnerable to price gouging and low safety standards, says NNU.