National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_OCT 2/9/12 5:30 PM Page 4 NEWS BRIEFS RN Janet DeMoranville is standing up against the private equity investment firm that now owns Morton Hospital where she has worked for 13 years, saying the company is more concerned about profits than patients. "They are just out to make money," said DeMoranville, describing the motives of Cerberus. "They don't care how they do it, or what cuts they have to make to get it. They have to realize that healthcare is not a money-making business. It's a patient care industry. That's what it needs to be about." DeMoranville was one of five Morton nurses who joined more than 150 other Nurses Protest Private Equity Management of Hospitals H NATIONAL undreds of nurses and their supporters from across the United States converged outside the headquarters of Cerberus Capital Management in New York City on Dec. 20 to protest the practices of the multibillion-dollar private equity firm's healthcare unit, Steward Health Care System. Cerberus-Steward, which now operates 10 hospitals in Massachusetts, has partnered with a number of physician practices locally and is also entering the health insurance market. CerberusSteward has come under increasing criticism for cornering the market with predatory practices, undercutting patient care with its push for profits. The nurses, who came from Massachusetts, New York, Washington, D.C., California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, were all members of National Nurses United. At the rally, allies from several advocacy groups joined them as well as protesters from Occupy Wall Street. The highlights of the demonstration included a street performance and a 10foot, three-headed dog balloon, "Cerberus," the mythical canine at the gates of hell. "As patient advocates on the front lines, nurses are sounding the alarm about the entrance of cut-throat private equity firms, like Cerberus, into the health care market4 N AT I O N A L N U R S E place," said Karen Higgins, RN and co-president, National Nurses United. "It is a development that spells danger for patients and communities across the country." Cerberus owns an array of businesses, including the Freedom Group subsidiary, a leading manufacturer of guns and ammunition. Last year it added the chain of hospitals to its portfolio. Nurses who work at those hospitals say that Cerberus-Steward has failed to maintain quality patient care standards at the Massachusetts facilities in contravention of an agreement reached with the state and with its employees. Approval for the profit-maker to take control of the nonprofit facilities was tied to keeping patient care a top priority. The company makes daily threats to close services or entire hospitals in direct violation of the assurances it made to the state as a condition of entering the healthcare marketplace. 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 nurses from the Massachusetts Nurses Association to protest Cerberus at the firm's corporate headquarters in New York. The protest, which received the support of the Occupy Wall Street movement, featured chants against Cerberus and a skit by the nurses based on the Christmas movies It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol, featuring Cerberus executives as the greedy Mr. Potter and Scrooge characters. MNA also used the event to unveil a giant, inflatable three-headed dog with fangs used to mock the firm's fictional namesake—a canine monster in Greek mythology that guarded the gates of hell. The nurses report a number of alarming changes since Cerberus-Steward took over. Staffing levels have been reduced, specialty units for the care of specific conditions have been eliminated, and patients are treated like products on an assembly line. Even the most basic supplies are not available when nurses need them; for example, bread, crackers, and juice (which nurses need to stabilize diabetic patients) are no longer available on the floors. Some nurses who spoke out to protect their patients have been fired, in direct violation of federal labor law. To its RNs, Cerberus-Steward reneged on its contract, dropping the promised defined-benefit pension plan, a benefit promised to RNs to keep them on the job. The company is threatening to cut health benefits to some nurses, as well. —David Schildmeier DECEMBER 2011

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