RNs Welcome Blue Ribbon Panel Call To Rebuild St. Luke's Hospital, California Nurses Association

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 06 Jul 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee welcomed the recommendation of the St. Luke's Blue Ribbon Panel to rebuild the endangered San Francisco hospital.

Officials of the Sutter Health corporation have, in the past few years, been steadily reducing acute care services at the Mission-area hospital as part of a plan to close the facility while shifting hospital and emergency care to wealthier neighborhoods, as part of a process condemned as "medical redlining" by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

"We are extremely gratified that the panel has recommended saving this vital community resource as a critically needed acute care hospital for a medically underserved community," said CNA/NNOC co-president Zenei Cortez.

"We are also well aware that this recommendation is the direct result of a broad community effort led by St. Luke's registered nurses with other hospital staff, neighborhood residents around the hospital, and elected leaders in San Francisco to stop the closure and protect this essential hospital," Cortez said.

Member of the panel, which included CNA as well as representatives of the Mayor's office, the Board of Supervisors, the city's Public Health Department, United Healthcare Workers West, neighborhood groups, and California Pacific Medical Center (the Sutter hospital that runs St. Luke's), unanimously called for St. Luke's to be rebuilt as an acute care hospital at the current site.

"We entered this process with a lot of skepticism based on our difficult history with CPMC, but we're glad our civic leaders heard nurses' voices in choosing a plan that will allow us to continue our mission of caring for this medically neglected community," said St. Luke's RN leader Jane Sandoval. "We urge CPMC to act quickly to resolve the second-class status nurses and other staff feel within CPMC."

The panel also recommended that:

- The services to be included in the new hospital will include emergency and urgent care, intensive care, low-intervention obstetrics, senior health services, and a variety of other specialty care services.

- Services and care will be maintained during construction.

- Every effort will be made toward staff recruitment and retention, including treating nurses well within CPMC.

- Next, the recommendations must be ratified by California Pacific Medical Center, the Sutter Health affiliate that operates St. Luke's, which would then go before the Board of Supervisors in a fall public hearing.

CNA/NNOC said it will closely monitor the process and will take up additional public steps if warranted to assure the plans to keep the hospital are upheld.

Question marks remain, said CNA/NNOC, over how many beds the rebuilt hospital will have, and assurances over the mix of services offered to retain a full level of specialty care services at the hospital.

"On behalf of CNA/NNOC," said Cortez, "we are especially grateful to the nurses who spoke at the Blue Ribbon public comment last month, as well as the hundreds of nurses who attended hearings, rallied, and struck to save this treasured hospital."

California Nurses Association