Facing Loss Of Beloved Hospital, St. Luke's RNs Overwhelmingly Vote To Authorize 10-Day Strike Against Sutter, California

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 07 Mar 2008 - 13:00 PDT

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Just weeks after the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Luke's Hospital was closed by Sutter Health, RNs from the facility voted overwhelmingly to authorize their bargaining teams to strike the hospital chain for up to ten days over a pattern of medical redlining, as well serious issues of patient safety and healthcare for nurses, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee reports today.

Nurses from St. Luke's have joined together with community members in a campaign to save the hospital, which has operated for nearly 140 years with a mission to serve the underserved. Sutter Health has been attempting to close the facility in order to concentrate its medical services in wealthier parts of town-a medical redlining strategy similar to that which they are employing at San Leandro Hospital and Sutter Santa Rosa. St. Luke's is the only private hospital in the southern half of San Francisco.

With the strike vote, St. Luke's nurses join colleagues from California Pacific Medical Center, Sutter Solano, Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center, Mills-Peninsula Health Services and San Leandro Hospital in authorizing the strike.

Nurses from two other facilities vote today, and RNs from Fremont-Rideout Health Group in Marysville and Yuba City and Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, two non-Sutter facilities, will hold strike votes on Friday.

Jane Sandoval, an RN at St. Luke's Hospital said: "We will save St. Luke's because we must. Our patients depend on this hospital, our community depends on this hospital, and the entire city depends on this hospital. Sutter is closing this hospital unit by unit, and RNs will strike rather than allow them to continue."

In the North Bay, votes at Marin General, Sutter Santa Rosa, and Novato Community Hospital have been postponed due to the hospitalization of CNA's regional representative with cardiac trouble. The votes will be rescheduled for a later date.

5,000 RNs have walked out of 11 Sutter facilities twice already. The key reason for the walkouts is the pattern of patient safety risks caused by Sutter's refusal to schedule RNs to care for patients when nurses are on legally-mandated meal or rest breaks. Such scheduling gaps leave patients unattended and at risk for sentinel events.

Nurses are also concerned over Sutter's practice of 'medical redlining' by closing three hospitals in medically-underserved areas (St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco, San Leandro Hospital, and Sutter Santa Rosa Medical Center), and their refusal to agree to fair settlements on issues of healthcare and retiree healthcare and pensions.

"At St. Luke's and other facilities, Sutter should by trying to make sure its patients are guaranteed safe nursing care at all times. Instead, they are digging in their heels, looking to fight nurses tooth and nail, and at my facility are even embarking on retaliation campaigns against nurses," said Jan Rodolfo, an RN at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and the elected secretary of the CNA board.

Patient Care Problems Key to Dispute

The key area of dispute is patient care protections. Sutter has rejected the nurses' proposal for a dedicated meal-and-break relief RN as well as for trained lift teams available 24 hours a day to protect patients from falls and nurses from back injuries. Another important concern is a proposal that all patients are assigned directly to an RN.

Sutter RNs are also incensed by the chain's attempt at most facilities to cut back healthcare benefits and attempt to shift cost, premiums and fees onto the nurses, both those currently working and retirees. Sutter RNs note that other hospitals, such as Kaiser Permanente, in a very competitive market during a nursing shortage, offer much better retirement medical benefits and as a result find it easier to recruit and retain nurses.

Hospitals Affected

Sutter hospitals affected are St. Luke's Hospital and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, San Leandro Hospital, Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and San Mateo, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Sutter Delta in Antioch, and Sutter Solano in Vallejo.

California Nurses Association

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