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Nurses, Community Groups Launch Week of Rallies Urging Attorney General to Approve Sale

85,000 ER visits last year at St. Francis and St. Vincent's show great need for essential services

Registered nurses from Daughters of Charity hospitals began mobilizing en masse this week for the six Attorney General hearings regarding the proposed sale of Daughters of Charity Healthcare System to Prime Healthcare, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) announced today. CNA/NNU represents 1,800 nurses at four of the six affected hospitals.

St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood—first up in the week of hearings—saw a widespread, spirited RN turnout Monday, as CNA/NNU nurses, joined by a number of community organizations who rallied in large numbers before hearing and then provided forceful testimony as to the importance of saving their hospitals and preserving vital patient care services in their communities.

Daughters of Charity RNs will continue to hold rallies and testify in support of saving vital healthcare services in their communities, voiced by those who know first-hand what's at stake. The second hearing will take place today at St. Vincent's Medical Center located in downtown Los Angeles. — St. Vincent Medical Center Rally at 8:00 a.m., Hearing at 10:00 a.m.

Seton Hall Auditorium, 262 South Lake St., Los Angeles, CA 90057

The remaining four will take place in the Bay Area in each of the communities served by one of the D.O.C hospitals located in San Jose, Gilroy, Moss Beach and Daly City

St. Vincent Provides Critically Needs Services to an Underserved Diverse Community

"I take care of heart patients in the intensive care unit ay St. Vincent's where I have worked for the last 33 years," said RN Nella Manaytay. "In those 33 years I have witnessed the difference that our services and care made in the lives of patients and families who had no where else to go. The DOCHS has served this community for the last 150 years and the approval of the sale to PRIME will enable us to continue to touch so many lives and serve the community for the next 150 years."

Although St. Vincent Medical Center is part of the larger Los Angeles healthcare system, it offers services that cannot be readily replicated elsewhere such as the Korean Pavilion and Asian Pacific Liver Center, both of which are dedicated to caring for historically underserved communities in a culturally sensitive environment. St. Vincent is also one of a very small number of LA hospitals that specialize in organ transplants, an especially critical service. Continued access to these specialty services is absolutely essential to St. Vincent's community, a majority of who rely on Medi-Cal for healthcare.

Growing Community Support to Save the Hospitals

Among the growing list of supporters joining CNA to lobby for approval of the sale are the Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch, SoCal350, Consumer Watchdog, and Communities for a Better Environment Additionally, the California National Organization of Women (California NOW) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) have sent letters to the Attorney General, calling for the sale to go through. Both letters cited concern with lack of community access to vital care, should the hospitals close.

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.

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.

January 7-9 Bay Area Hearing and Rally Schedule

Wednesday Jan. 7— O'Connor Hospital—Rally at 9:00 a.m., Hearing at 10:00 a.m. O'Connor Hospital Medical Office Building, 2101 Forest Ave., San Jose, CA 95128

Thursday, Jan. 8, —St. Louise Regional Hospital—Rally at 9:00 a.m., Hearing at 10:00 a.m. Gilroy City Hall, Council Chambers 7351 Rosanna St., Gilroy, CA 95020

Friday, Jan. 9, Seton Medical Center Coastside— NO RALLY-Hearing—9:00 a.m. Seton Medical Center-Coastside, 600 Marine Blvd., Moss Beach, CA 94038

Friday, Jan 9, Seton Medical Center—Rally at Noon, Hearing at 1:00 p.m. Seton Medical Center, Merced Room, 145 Lake Merced Blvd., Daly City, CA 94015.