News of the Month — May 2022
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Scientific American quoted NUHW member Jessica Dominguez, founder and lead clinician of La Clínica, which offers culturally sensitive mental health therapy to Latinx patients at a Richmond Kaiser Permanente center, in a story about the need to make mental health services available to all, most importantly those in underserved communities.
National Labor Relations Board prosecutors urged a California district judge to force radiology company RadNet to negotiate with NUHW, which last year filed a trio of unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB against RadNet for dragging its feet during bargaining sessions, reports Law 360.
A story in the Valdosta Times notes NUHW is among the supporters of Senator Bernie Sander’s Medicare For All Act of 2022, which would guarantee health care as a human right for anyone living in the United States.
Lost Coast Outpost reports that amid an uptick in workplace violence, Providence St. Joseph Hospital administrators implemented 24/7 security and launched de-escalation training for staff in April. The hospital CEO attributed the surge in violence – ranging from profanity-laden threats to spitting, biting, slapping, kicking, shoving and punching – to patients being taken to the hospital on a 5150 hold, which allows an adult struggling with mental illness to be involuntarily detained for a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization.
Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi has proposed Assembly Bill 1502 that would require an owner or company to apply for a license 120 days before buying or operating a nursing home, reports Los Angeles Times. Homes operating without a license would lose Medicaid funding and couldn’t admit new residents. The bill would impact Shlomo Rechnitz – owner of Brius Healthcare – who has been denied a state license and uses a business partnership with one of the home’s former owners to continue holding the facility’s license.
People’s World says workers are increasingly seeking to unionize as the National Labor Relations Board reports a 57% increase in petitions for union recognition votes in the first half of fiscal year 2022. There were 1,174 election petitions in those six months, compared to 748 in the equivalent six months, Oct. 1, 2020-March 31, 2021, the fiscal year before.
Sutter Health bounced back from an operating loss of $321 million in 2020 and reported operating income of $199 million in 2021, helping lead to a 1.4% operating margin for the year, including a $1.6 billion increase in patient services revenue in 2021, reports the Business Journal.