Nurses Outline Specific Conditions Future PVH Operator Should Meet

This week the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United called upon the Petaluma Health Care District (PHCD) Board of Directors, to guarantee that a set of conditions assuring the highest standards of care be met by the two companies it is considering for the long-term lease of Petaluma Valley Hospital (PVH) in 2017.

 "Registered Nurses are deeply concerned about the future of the Hospital, our patients, and the communities we serve, " said CNA board member Kathy Dennis, RN. "We have devoted our professional lives to providing critically needed care to our communities, particularly to the poor and underprivileged in our society and we want to be sure that our patients will be able, at all times, to receive compassionate, accessible, and high quality healthcare close to home," said Dennis, who is also the Chairperson of the Catholic Division of CNA.

 The PHCD Board is currently reviewing two applications for the long-term lease of PVH, one from St. Joseph Health System to renew its long-term lease to operate PVH, and an application by Prime Health Care Foundation to transfer responsibility for operating PVH to it under a similar long-term lease.

 In a letter, CNA/NNU, which represents 185,000 RNs throughout the U.S., including the 140 RNs that work at PVH, demands that the board "enshrine in the plan for the coming transition the mission, vision, and core values heretofore embraced by the Board," and sets out a series of guarantees the Board should secure before approving either proposal:

PVH must be maintained for the full term of the lease as a General Acute Care Hospital to continue providing our community with all existing types and levels of healthcare services, including an Emergency Department that is adequately staffed and equipped to provide at least Basic Emergency Services;

Safe staffing levels must be maintained in each unit of the Hospital as required by State laws and regulations, including those mandating nurse-to-patient ratios at all times—day and night, on weekends and holidays, and during meal periods and breaks—as well as safe patient handling, and the prevention of workplace violence;

The successful applicant must adhere to the highest standards of care and respect for healthcare workers, to ensure that PVH will be able to recruit and retain excellent nursing staff;

All jobs and benefits must be retained, and all union contracts must be honored;

The successful applicant must commit to annual increases in its expenditures for charity care, year over year for the full term of the lease, in amounts commensurate with the financial benefits it derives from its tax-exempt status as a non-profit corporation, with appropriate adjustments for increases in the cost of healthcare in the communities served; and

Transparency and openness to input from nurses, frontline healthcare workers, and the community about the terms of the new lease must be maintained at all stages of the application and approval process.