National Nurses United

NewsBriefs 2/14/07 4:07 PM Page 7 RNs Fight Against Sutter Hospital Closure egistered nurses, doctors, patients, and the Northern California community of Santa Rosa were reeling after Sutter Health's sudden announcement in January that it planned to close Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa by 2008. Now RNs and other activists are rallying to keep the hospital open, saying that many patients, particularly Latinos, have few alternatives for care and that the growing region needs more, not fewer, hospitals. "We just don't believe the people of our town really know what the hospital closing up means," said RN Nancy Anderson, who has worked for almost 29 years at the hospital. About 1,200 employees will lose their jobs with the closure. "It has a very large trickle-down effect. For the people coming to our hospital for so long, we just don't know where they're going to go." Sutter is looking to get out of a 20-year contract it signed with Sonoma County in 1996 to operate the hospital. To do so, Sutter must convince county supervisors that another area hospital, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, can absorb the extra patient load. Sutter expects to put the plan before the supervisors by early March. "The county's decision ultimately decides our fate," said Debbie Colmar, an RN at Sutter Santa Rosa for 20 years. "The county ran R JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA RY 2 0 0 7 us for many years, and there was good, and there was bad. We stayed in business and provided for the community, for the disenfranchised. My disappointment is in Sutter's lack of commitment to the community, and the community has no idea the impact this was going to have on them." Though the RNs are personally affected by the change—many of the 450 CNA/NNOCrepresented RNs have worked at the facility for more than 20 years and some are nearing retirement—and most will have to find new jobs, they are especially concerned about their patients' ability to access the same healthcare elsewhere. RNs say it is simplistic to think that Memorial can absorb the influx of patients by adding an outpatient urgent care center and 40 to 80 new beds. Sutter has a 230 bed capacity. "It's hard for us to think Memorial can gear up enough to encompass the number of patients they will have in the time span that Sutter is planning on closing," said Anderson. Colmar wonders how one hospital can replace two, and adequately serve a growing community. "How can you grow and provide morally responsible medical care with less?" Colmar asked. From the nurses' experience, Sutter Santa Rosa already needed to expand, and Memorial is already crowded, with long W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G waits for the emergency room and sometimes diversions to Sutter Santa Rosa. Medical providers and community activists also say that it's "questionable" whether Memorial, a Catholic hospital, will provide the same kinds of reproductive services that Sutter Santa Rosa does. A local paper has already reported that Memorial will not offer in-hospital abortions. Cathy Clark, a labor and delivery RN, said patients from all over Northern California come to Sutter for its level 3 NICU, prepared to handle the highest-risk cases. But because the monetary reimbursements for women in labor are extremely low, Clark believes that Sutter is closing the hospital and opening a new outpatient surgery center to make a profit. According to Colmar, Sutter's plans for closure are better known than plans to care for patients. Colmar and nurse colleagues protested and rallied in January before a Sonoma County board of supervisors meeting, and Colmar sent a letter asking for a public investigation of the decision and has been encouraging others to attend supervisors' meetings. Before Sutter Santa Rosa took over the contract in 1996, the facility operated as a community hospital for more than a hundred years. Sutter serves most of the community's underinsured and uninsured people; this population constitutes 25 percent of Sutter's business. Also, according to CNA/NNOC research of U.S. Census and state health data, a higher percentage of Latino patients visit Sutter than Memorial. In 2005, Hispanics accounted for 26 percent of Sutter's ER visits, and only 13 at Memorial. Hispanics accounted for 23 percent of hospital discharges at Sutter, but only 4 percent at Memorial. Sutter RNs are hoping to spur a public debate to persuade supervisors to keep the hospital open, whether by forcing Sutter to fulfill its contract or by taking over the facility as other communities have done. "[The decision] should not be made by two corporate people in the back room somewhere," said Clark. "I think the county and community should have input. It is a decision that should be made by the community." —bonnie ho REGISTERED NURSE 7

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