MINNESOTA
N
urses and supporters rallied
outside the Medical Alley Annual
Dinner in Minneapolis on the
evening of May 15 to demand
accountability from health care executives
and CEOs who continue to uphold a health
care system that puts profits over patients.
The Medical Alley Annual Dinner is a
who's-who of Minnesota's health care so-
called elites—a closed-door celebration of
power where hospital executives, insurance
industry leaders, and corporate financiers
gather to conduct insider conversations
while patients and frontline workers wait
patiently for fair staffing levels to be dis-
cussed with those actually delivering patient
care in hospitals statewide. Nurses showed
up in force to disrupt that narrative and call
out the dangerous consequences of corpo-
rate dominance in health care.
"For too long, decisions that impact
patient outcomes and caregiver safety have
been made by people who are disconnected
from the struggles caregivers face," said Jill
Lebrun, RN. "These CEOs and board mem-
bers sit on each other's boards, trade favors
across systems, and profit off a model of care
that leaves both patients and nurses behind
in service of financial growth each quarter.
The overlap between hospital leadership
and corporate leadership is not only unethi-
cal—it's unsafe."
As ever, Minnesota nurses are leading
from the front. With chants, signs, and testi-
monies, nurses and allies reminded the public
and health care industry leaders that CEOs
and board members should balance network-
ing with listening to caregiver requests for
safer staffing levels to improve patient care.
Rising workplace violence and increasing
nurse turnover due to unsafe staffing ratios
are not abstract policy problems—they're the
real, measurable consequences of profit-dri-
ven decision-making.
"While hospital industry leaders are
focused on increasing profit margins, we are
at the bedside holding patients' hands,
explaining delayed discharges to families,
running to codes, and cleaning up the
messes their budgets created," said Kelley
Anaas, RN from Abbott Northwestern.
"We're tired of being treated like numbers
on a spreadsheet instead of the professionals
who keep people alive."
—Staff report
Frontline health care workers call out corporate
control at Medical Alley Annual Dinner
NEWS BRIEFS
Retiring soon?
Join the CNA/NNOC retiree division! CNA/NNOC
members in good standing who are now retired
are eligible to join. Dues are only $60 per year,
and you will be a part of an active, dynamic group
of retired RNs who work to continue our vision
of social justice and health care for all. More
information and how to join can be found
here: https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/
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