NursingLink

RNs to Picket Chopra Event at Sutter Health

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 21—Registered nurses from nearly a dozen Sutter Health hospitals throughout Northern California will protest Sunday, March 2nd outside a Sutter Health marketing and fundraising event that will feature Dr. Deepak Chopra, a celebrity physician and expert in integrative medicine.

The RNs, represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, charge that Sutter Health, one of California’s largest hospital chains, is attempting to use Chopra’s fame to distract from its pattern of serious deficiencies in patient care and patient safety.

“Sutter is preaching about healing and caring at the same time that they are actually endangering patients with their heartless policies,” said Jonica Brooks, a Sutter RN who is also an Ayurvedic counselor. “They don’t need high-dollar PR events, they need to get serious about caring for the patients in these facilities.”

What: Registered Nurses Picket Sutter Health Event Featuring Deepak Chopra When: Sun. March 2, 5:00-6:00 p.m. Where: Westin St. Francis Hotel, 359 Powell St. @ Geary

The Chopra event is a $300 per ticket evening called, “Celebrating Science & Soul,” sponsored by Sutter’s Institute on Health & Healing.

The nurse protest of the event comes on the heels of two of the largest nurses’ strikes this nation has ever seen, with 5,000 RNs at thirteen Sutter hospitals walking out in October and December 2007. An outlier among California hospitals, CNA says that Sutter is known for:

- Endangering patients by refusing to commit to safe RN staffing at all times, such as during legally-mandated meal and rest breaks for nurses;

- Engaging in “medical redlining” -or dumping patient populations in medically-underserved communities of color-by attempting to close St. Luke’s Hospital, San Leandro Hospital, and Sutter Santa Rosa Medical Center;

- Abusing its charity care responsibilities by providing less care than at other chains and at a lower level than the non-profit tax breaks received;

- And offering sub-standard benefits packages to its nurses, including proposals for nurse health security, medical benefits, and pension improvements that are unsatisfactory to RNs and inferior to CNA standards established in contracts with Kaiser Permanente and other facilities.

---