Today I went on an early morning walk with workers at Valley Hospital as they went back to work after a 24-hour strike — only to be locked out by hospital management. These workers have been without a contract for nearly a year. Management has refused to bargain in good faith, and has often either failed to show up for scheduled bargaining sessions, or has refused to put any offer on the table. Local leaders such as Ben Stuckart, Amber Waldref, Marcus Ricelli, Candace Mum, Jon Snyder, Timm Ormsby, as well as church leaders and union workers from across the area all showed up in this bitter cold weather to be in solidarity with the striking workers.
But this struggle has actually been going on for more than six years. In the summer of 2007, Empire Health Services (EHS) disclosed that it was negotiating a deal to convert Deaconess and Valley hospitals to for profit corporations owned by Community Health Systems (CHS), a national hospital for profit chain. EHS conned local leaders into believing that the hospitals would have to close if this specific conversion did not go through. Because of this false propaganda, the Protect Our Hospitals Coalition (of which I was a part) was told that opposing the conversion was a non-starter. So, we worked for months to include as much protection for the community as possible in the conversion approval by the Department of Health.
CHS, the huge national chain of for profit hospitals that took over Deaconess and Valley hospitals (now operating as Rockwood Health System – RHS), has never complied with the terms of the conversion. They do not take their share of the charity care in our community, putting an unfair burden on Sacred Heart. They closed clinics important to the community — such as the Parkinson’s Clinic — and focused on departments that produce more income — such as cardiac care. They eliminated community programs, such as Wellness Works. And they have cut staffing to the point that patient care is at risk. When a complaint was filed with DOH documenting these violations, we were told the violations were not serious enough to warrant action!
Contrary to ‘promises’ made in order to secure the conversion, the hospitals have not supported the local. Much of the profit has left the community in the form of huge salaries for CHS CEO’s in Tennessee. While local managers get paid much less. The hospitals no longer purchase any supplies through local businesses. They buy the cheapest possible products on national contracts, and ship them to hospitals, thereby depriving the local economy of a usual contribution from having a large local hospital system.
The conversion of Deaconess and Valley hospitals has been a failure of epic proportions for our community. All of us need to come together to demand that these hospitals be returned to the community and take their place as true community assets! And they need to start by negotiating in good faith with their employees.
