Attorney General holding hearings on St. Joseph-Adventist Health West proposed partnership
Just three years after merging with Providence Health & Services, St. Joseph Health wants to cut another deal — this time, with anti-union Adventist Health West. The deal would move control of the hospitals even farther away from the workers and the people they serve.
Workers are concerned because there has not been a complete assessment of how this new partnership will impact hospital operations or patient care. For example, Adventist intends to dramatically cut services at its St. Helena hospital — including psychiatric services and obstetrics — and funnel those patients to Queen of the Valley and Santa Rosa Memorial. They claim the hospitals can absorb this, but have presented no impact assessments to back up that claim.
PSJ leadership has already proven they stand for profits over patients care: workers have endured layoffs and a staffing crisis while the hospitals report multi-million-dollar profits. Adventist has been squeezing local hospitals too: just like PSJ, they recently added another layer of highly paid regional executives, and outsourced or laid off workers in Napa and Mendocino, while operating under less and less transparency at the local level.
After the Providence-St. Joseph merger, our Northern California hospitals were ordered to provide a minimum amount of charity care — and in 2018, all but one failed to do so for the second year in a row. Yet they claim this new partnership will help low-income patients.
Bad behavior shouldn’t be rewarded with lucrative business deals. California’s attorney general still needs to approve this change, and is holding hearings this week and next throughout Northern California to gather feedback. Workers must speak out to make sure patient care isn’t sacrificed for corporate gains.
Upcoming hearings
Solano County
July 1, 2019 at 10:00 a.m.
North Vallejo Community Center
1121 Whitney Avenue, Vallejo
Mendocino County
July 2, 2019, at 10:00 a.m.
Willits Community Center
111 E. Commercial Street, Willits
Napa County
July 3, 2019 at 10:00 a.m.
Calistoga Community Center
1307 Washington Street, Calistoga