National Nurses United

CALIFORNIA N urses are tenacious in fight- ing for their patients, and some- times that patient is the hospital itself. Last November, when registered nurses at Community Medical Center Long Beach were about to kick off bargaining, they received some upsetting news: Memorial- Care, the nonprofit chain that also runs Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, did not want to invest the funds necessary to bring the 158-bed facility up to state seismic standards and were shuttering the hospital. Knowing how important it was to keep a hospital open to serve the entire east side of Long Beach, Community nurses sprang into action and, with the help and support of coworkers throughout the hospital, spear- headed a community campaign including employees, other local unions and labor groups, community members, the hospital foundation, and local elected officials to save the hospital. Their hard work paid off; the city (which actually owns the building facilities and land) on June 19 approved Molina, Wu, Network (MWN) to take over hospital opera- tions. MemorialCare refused to cooperate with the new operator to keep the hospital open continuously, but the decision is still a huge victory for RNs and the Long Beach commu- nity, which could have faced indefinite closure of the hospital if not for their advocacy. "I strongly, strongly feel that it was CNA coming in that really was the impetus for the city to jump on this," said Ellen Mockridge, an ICU RN at Community for more than 35 years and co-chief nurse representative there with ICU colleague Jackie McKay. "When we heard, Jackie and I said, 'We got to do some- thing. We can't just wait around. We got to motivate the city to do something.'" MemorialCare, conversely, was obstruc- tionist; the corporation fought nurses and the community every step of the way, from refus- ing to reasonable closure delays in order to give the city time to find a new operator to being unwilling to transfer its license or, even better, transition its license to MWN while its new license application was being processed— a common practice in the industry that would have allowed the hospital to operate continu- ously without any actual stoppage in services. Though MemorialCare at first stated that the hospital would close in June 2019, it suddenly declared in March after nurses started lobby- ing city officials that the date would be moved up to June 2018. In addition, reports showed that other area hospitals were in no position to handle the large influx of patients closing Community would generate. It also refused to transfer its license to the new operators, which would have forced MWN to jump through more hurdles and face a much longer delay of more than nine months before the hospital could be up and running. MemorialCare final- ly agreed in June to transfer the license only after intense city and community pressure spearheaded by nurses resulted in bad publici- ty for the company. Nurses waged a multi-faceted campaign to save Community Long Beach. Their first immediate move to build community outcry was to enter Long Beach's annual Belmont Shore Christmas Parade and publicize the impending closure to the huge crowds in attendance. They worked with all the Long Beach city councilmembers and in particular with Daryl Supernaw, who represents the Fourth District in which the hospital is locat- ed, as well as with Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia. They enlisted the support of Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, and state Assemblymember Patrick O'Don- nell. They showed up at hearings, passed out buttons, lawn signs, and posters, and educat- ed the public at every opportunity. Nurses such as Mockridge and McKay are committed to staying on with the new opera- tor, with which CNA already has a working relationship at other Southern California hospital facilities. Molina, Wu, Network is expected to take over operations soon, but because MemorialCare refused to "loan" the current license to MWN, the companies were not able to make a seamless transition and the hospital was closed in early July for the time being. Nurses expecting to return to work with the new operator are hoping that the facility will reopen quickly for the sake of patients who need health care services now. Nurses said patients who were in the hospi- tal receiving mental health care will be at risk of being dumped into the community without the medical help they so desperately need. "People who are suffering mental health crises [were] getting desperately needed care at Community," said registered nurse Michelle Pimental. "[With the hospital closed], there are simply not enough mental health beds in the area to accommodate their needs. How many of our vulnerable and mentally ill patients will be discharged with a ticket to nowhere?" McKay said she is hopeful the hospital will reopen in a few months. A 30-plus-year veter- an of Community, McKay said she has lived through other previous closures, sales, and takeovers of the facility. Thanks to the nurses, this one did not end as badly as it could have. "If we hadn't made a ruckus, nothing would have happened," said McKay. "This hospital still serves a huge need. There isn't another psych hospital within miles of here. It just matters. The lives matter." —Staff report M AY | J U N E 2 0 1 8 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 7 Nurses key to saving Long Beach hospital RNs organized to push city to find new operator

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