National Nurses United

NewsBriefs:JanFeb 3 2/28/09 12:56 AM Page 6 Hospital Chain Giant Stirring Up Controversy NATIONAL ospital corporation of America is stirring up trouble in communities across the country, and RNs are saying, "Enough." Early last September, HCA's Southern Hills Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. delivered and admitted its last babies, completely shutting down the labor and delivery and neonatal intensive care units. The hospital claimed it could not find obstetricians willing to deliver at the hospital, though CNA/NNOC has learned that doctors in the area say differently. Southern Hills applied within the state to shift those services to HCA's StoneCrest Medical Center, located in a nearby fast-growing county with better-insured patients, but was denied in February. In contrast to the StoneCrest area, the Southern Hills neighborhood in south Nashville is home to the largest concentration of Latinos in the state, and thousands of Kurds have been resettled in the area by Catholic Charities. "I just think it's a shame to see healthcare services shrinking when it should be more accessible," said Mark Russell, an RN who works at a different hospital in the Nashville area. "We already have a deplorable infant mortality rate." H 6 REGISTERED NURSE dozen states, employing 50,000 Southern Hills RNs have CNA/NNOC put up RNs. In 2006, a group of private been working with CNA/NNOC a billboard near equity firms bought HCA and and community leaders to draw Southern Hills Medical acquired more than $26 billion in attention to and fight the closure Center to protest debt to fund the transaction. by holding press conferences for closure of labor and CNA/NNOC believes that HCA the media, buying a billboard ad, delivery services is now focusing even more on the and attending hearings before and alert the Latino bottom line in order to pay off state health officials. They are community about this massive debt. worried that laboring mothers in the changes. In San Jose, Calif., CNA/ the community—particularly those without prenatal care—will show up at NNOC RNs at Good Samaritan Hospital are Southern Hills and be forced to deliver in the in tough contract negotiations with HCA, and emergency room without the expertise of the hospital giant is also fighting with the city labor and delivery and NICU staff. The local over its obligations to maintain medical servnewspaper, the Tennessean, reported that ices after it bought, then closed San Jose community residents were surprised by the Medical Center in 2004—the only facility unit closures. "Many people are used to serving the city's downtown area. HCA plans going to that hospital, and not knowing to tear down the facility this year, and there's no delivery, it would be kind of con- CNA/NNOC nurses, working with the comfusing and tragic because the other hospitals munity, were able to force the company to are very far from here and many Hispanic address additional environmental concerns people don't know how to get to places and about the demolition. The city of San Jose is get that information," Saira Vanessa Cavarev preparing to pass a resolution to keep the land zoned for hospital use, so that HCA cantold the paper. Registered nurses report that the South- not sell the property to developers without ern Hills closure is just one event in a laundry disclosing zoning restrictions. The resolution list of ways that Hospital Corporation of also serves as leverage to make HCA conAmerica boosts its bottom line at the expense tribute funds toward downtown medical of patients and communities around the services if it sells the land. Meanwhile, HCA country. HCA operates 169 hospitals and last year appealed its property tax assessment more than 100 surgery centers in almost two as too high and sought a refund of nearly half W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2009

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