Nurses Protest Deteriorating Patient Care Standards, Working Conditions

Nurses who work at Watsonville Community Hospital will officially begin a two-day strike on Wednesday, June 22, due to seriously deteriorating patient care standards and working conditions, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) announced today. 

Nurses cite chronic short-staffing, retaliation against RNs who speak out, management’s refusal to accept or address RNs’ written documentation of unsafe assignments, and the Tennessee-based Quorum Health Corporation’s (formally Community Health System/CHS) aggressive push for unacceptable cuts to nurses’ contractual rights and protections as central reasons for the decision to strike.

What: Watsonville Nurses Strike

Where: Watsonville Community Hospital, 75 Nielson Street, Watsonville, CA 95076

When: STRIKE: 6:45 a.m. Wednesday, June 22—6:44 p.m. Thursday, June 23

MARCH & VIGIL FOR SAFE PATIENT CARE STANDARDS: 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 22. March will begin at the St. Patrick’s Church (721 Main St., Watsonville, CA., 95076) and end at Watsonville City Plaza (358 Main St., Watsonville, CA 95076) at 1:45 p.m. for a community vigil and press conference.

CNA represents approximately 200 RNs at Watsonville Community Hospital, who state that top administrators have repeatedly ignored and denied nurses’ reports of unsafe patient care conditions, including understaffing. To call for change, nurses began an education and outreach effort in early 2015—speaking before the city council, and meeting repeatedly with community members and local leaders to educate the public about the serious links between nurse understaffing and poor patient outcomes.

Many studies have shown that when there is a safe nurse-to-patient ratio, patients have better health outcomes, including a reduction in hospital acquired infections (HAIs), falls, and bedsores.  A University of Pennsylvania study, for example, has shown that on a medical floor with appropriate ratios, patient deaths could be reduced by 14 percent.

By October of 2015, Watsonville nurses had successfully convinced the Watsonville City Council to unanimously join with the nurses in passing a joint resolution that demanded the corporate owners of the hospital adhere to California nurse-to-patient staffing laws and take steps to immediately improve staffing levels. While the public outcry forced CHS to return to bargaining with the nurses after more than a year, the RNs continued to report that chronic short staffing had only worsened.

“Short staffing is outrageous from a patient safety standpoint. But even if this corporation cares more about its business model and profits than our community, the fact remains that chronic understaffing of nurses actually drives up healthcare costs,” said Sandy Flanagan, RN. “No matter how you look at it, this corporation’s decision to cut patient care standards and work nurses dangerously short because it refuses to settle a safe contract comes at a dangerous cost to our community.”

Nurses argue that CHS, now Quorum after the parent corporation’s recent “spinoff” in May 2016, has willfully engaged in practices that place patients at risk of harm while inflating corporate profits. Administrators in CHS/Quorum facilities, RNs charge, use punitive and retaliatory measures against nurses who speak out about unsafe conditions.

“Since our once locally-owned community hospital was sold to CHS in the 1990s, things have gone downhill. It seems the more power and wealth this corporation has accrued, the more aggressive and unlawful their actions have become,” said Jennifer Holms, RN. “It is shocking that CHS/Quorum-run hospitals across the country are facing a multi-state trial for their violations of national and state standards of nursing practice and labor law, and it’s disgraceful that we have lost more than a 100 dedicated, experienced nurses over the past two years.”

In their ongoing effort to protect patients and nurses, RNs from 5 CHS/Quorum-run community hospitals—Watsonville and Barstow hospitals in California, Affinity Medical in Ohio, and Greenbrier and Bluefield in West Virginia—took their concerns to the conglomerate’s annual meeting in May 2016, decrying worsening patient care conditions and the critical link of these bad practices to corporate profits. After nurses’ testimony, shareholders voted down the CEO’s proposed $10.4 million-dollar raise and voted to democratize the manner in which top shareholders receive information about the corporation’s management.

Hospital management’s profit-focused mentality, nurses say, is reflected in an outright refusal to address severe deterioration in patient care conditions as well as a hard-line demand for sweeping cuts in nurses’ contractual rights and protections.

“There comes a point when as nurses we cannot remain silent,” said Holms. “We are calling on our neighbors to join us, help put an end to this corporation’s contemptible actions, and demand they settle a fair and safe contract that will keep our patients, community, and nurses safe.”

Tennessee-based Community Health Systems is the nation’s largest for-profit health care chain the nation, reporting 1.5 billion in profits over the past five years. CHS has routinely overcharged patients, is under investigation for Medicare billing fraud, and has engaged in hundreds of unfair labor practices against nurses. Watsonville Community hospital nurses have been in bargaining with the chain for three years, and have worked under an expired contract since September of 2013.

Press availability, photo opportunity: Nurses will be available to speak with the press by 7 a.m., June 22, 2016 at the strike, or at the press conference after the march at 1:45 p.m., 358 Main Street, Watsonville, CA., 95076. Contact: Teresa Mack, 510-289-3291