Call on CHS/Quorum Owned Watsonville Community Hospital to
Immediately Comply with Safe Staffing Law

Registered nurses are urging the Watsonville City Council to pass a resolution Tuesday night that calls on Watsonville Community Hospital to comply with California's safe patient nurse-to-patient ratios law and immediately rectify chronic short-staffing at the hospital.

"The city council's vote for our safe staffing and patient care resolution is a crucial step toward protecting our patients and community from chronic understaffing and dangerous care conditions. CHS/Quorum has repeatedly refused to address the nurses' constant warnings about the staffing crisis at our hospital. But an affirmative vote for the nurses' resolution would demonstrate the moral courage and power of Watsonville's elected officials, the registered nurses and our community standing as one to protect and ensure safe patient care," said Sylvia Perez, RN-IICN (Intermediate Intensive Care Nursery).

What: Nurses Urge City Council to Support Resolution on Watsonville Community Hospital
When: Today - Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015 – Rally: 6 p.m. Council meeting 6:30 p.m.
Where: 275 Main Street, Watsonville, CA

"Our most experienced nurses are leaving for safer working conditions. Nurses simply do not see a future because of the way CHS/Quorum is managing our community hospital, and adding to the ongoing staffing crisis," said Gloria Amaya, RN, Labor and Delivery. "Nurses are calling on the leadership and courage of our city council to stand with us and let this billion-dollar corporation know Watsonville's 'bottom-line' is always the health and safety of our community."

The resolution proposed by the RNs cites the role that Watsonville Community Hospital has played in Pajaro Valley and surrounding communities, including the city of Watsonville, for over 100 years. The resolution then notes that "nearly two decades of peer-reviewed research has demonstrated that safe staffing standards and nurse-to-patient ratios ensure patient safety," and "adherence to the California RN Staffing Ratio Law will ensure that patients in our community, particularly those most vulnerable such as our senior citizens, children and mothers, veterans, and working families, receive safe and appropriate care."

In August Watsonville Community Hospital became part of the Quorum Health Corporation, a new subsidiary of Community Health Systems, the largest provider of non-urban acute care in the nation. Just prior to the change, most managers were let go and replaced by interim managers. The new hospital management continues to refuse to maintain safe staffing levels or accept "ADO's," nurses' documentation of unsafe patient care conditions, nurses say.