A Cry for Action From the Campaign to Save RMH’s Birthing Center and a Severely Critical Letter Of Opposition From Healthcare Workers Union Are the Latest Shots Fired in a Heated Battle Pitting Medical Workers and Mothers Against Providence St. Joseph

National Union of Healthcare Workers holding banners in front of St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka in January 2019. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]

Saying the pandemic is being used as a pretense for an increase in profits, part of the letter from NUHW says, “Despite the pandemic, Providence received nearly $1 billion in federal stimulus funds and posted a $739 million net profit for 2020. Taxpayers in Humboldt County have helped support Providence during this pandemic.”  The union’s harsh letter continues by emphasizing the concern of its local members, saying, “Providence should be thanking Humboldt residents and caregivers, not eliminating a cherished birthing center and cutting jobs.”

The statement of opposition by NUHW also rebukes the corporate healthcare group’s assertion that the burden of additional travel time and distance to St Joseph in Eureka, as opposed to reaching Fortuna’s hospital, is inconsequential to women in labor.  While birth is a natural process, and does not necessarily require medical intervention by a hospital or doctor, each delivery and birth can be aptly treated as an emergency in either context of home or hospital, simply due to the intensity and urgency involved – if not also because of the gravity of consequences for mishap or failure potentially leading to injury or death of a mother and/or infant in a worst-case-scenario.  

In the letter addressed to President and CEO of Providence Rod Hochman, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) advocated on behalf of its 500 local NUHW members employed between both St. Joseph Eureka and Redwood Memorial hospitals, demanding the reversal of the decision as well as reinstatement of all terminated positions.  The scathing letter calls for immediate policy changes, and was also copied to the St. Joseph Hospital CEO in Humboldt County, Roberta Luskin-Hawk. 

Letter from the National Union of Healthcare Workers

The letter to President and CEO Rod Hochman specifically mentions two jobs that were cut, requesting that those two positions at Redwood Memorial Hospital be reinstated for the good of the community.  It is unclear if the jobs slated to be cut are related to the closure of the OB department, but if so, this would contradict the initial press release and subsequent promises by Providence St Joseph Hospital’s CEO Roberta Luskin-Hawk that the closure would not result in the loss of any jobs.   

Open letter to the public released on Monday, March 29th, 2021. (Click here to get a copy)  The press release above follows the letter to President and CEO of Providence Rod Hochman, sent last week by local union representatives.

Today, on the tails of that letter to the national corporate headquarters of Providence’s CEO in Seattle, an open letter to the public was released to local media calling attention to what they have found to be disingenuous information, even false promises made in the initial announcement from Providence St. Joseph regarding the planned closure.

According to the public call to action from the Campaign to Save RMH’s Birthing Center, contrary to the assurances made by Roberta Luskin-Hawk stating specifically that “childbirth services will be transitioned to the obstetrics program at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka (SJE), incorporating the staff and the legacy of both programs to create a single, high-quality childbirth center” and that “no layoffs are anticipated related to the consolidation,”  the letter complains that these promises have proven empty.    

Little more than a year ago, an article by NUHW titled “Redwood Memorial Hospital Is Stealth-cutting Its Services To Women And Children” tried to get the attention of California’s Attorney General of the time, Javier Baccera.  The issue of chronic understaffing, as described by a NUHW news blog, was raised as an ongoing issue for women and children’s services at both Redwood Memorial Hospital and St. Joseph Health in Eureka.  

The blog notes several previous union-organized pickets in opposition to staffing policies and hospital management practices that left nurses stretched too thin, and compromised patient quality of care.  A well-known doctor of over 40 years in the Humboldt area, Donald Baird sent a letter to the Attorney General in January 2020 which called attention to a pattern he recognized as potentially destructive to women’s health services in the area- which were protected by order of the attorney general only until the expiration date of the agreement, June 1st, 2021.

An excerpt from NUHW’s 2020 article contains a statement written to the California AG Javier Bacerra, from Redwood Memorial’s Chief of Staff at the time, Dr. Donald Baird, which reads in part as featured in the blog: 

“I am noticing a clear pattern of systematic termination, loss, and reduction of services at Redwood Memorial Hospital through actions including benign neglect and strategic decisions to relocate and bolster those same services at St. Joseph Eureka Hospital despite the commitments agreed to in the (agreement between the hospital systems and the state)… At this point in time, I am concerned that pediatric and obstetric service lines are also imminently in jeopardy.” – Dr. Donald Baird, January 2020 

CEO of Providence St. Joseph in Humboldt County, Roberta Luskin-Hawk has given mixed messages on this topic between 2020 and currently, as we approach the June 1st date which marks the end of the contractual obligation to provide OB services in Fortuna.  At a Board of Supervisors meeting in January last year, the CEO was non-committal when asked by County supervisors if jobs at Redwood Memorial hospital were secure in the area of women’s health. While the current stance of the CEO maintains that closure of the RMH labor and Delivery unit is in the best interest of the county’s stakeholders in healthcare, concrete plans available to the public, in regard to development of a better OB unit, job security and improved quality of care remain elusive.   

NUHW, a union which primarily represents hospital support staff and healthcare workers, is not the only powerful union standing in defiance of the plan.  With a strongly-worded press release responding to the announced OB Closure, California Nurses Association’s (CNA) harsh opposition to the plan includes feedback directly from nurses who are familiar with Fortuna’s obstetrics program, and peripheral community clinics that support local prenatal care as well. One nurse from Fortuna’s OB department included in the CNA Press release of March 4th, 2021 asserts that the need for OB services is abundant.  She stated,

As a registered nurse who lives and works in this community and who has delivered countless Humboldt County babies, I cannot in good conscience support any effort to cut or reduce family services at Redwood Memorial’s New Beginnings Family Birth Center,” said Adrianne Adams, RN, who works in Redwood’s L&D unit and a third-generation Humboldt County resident. “In fact, there is plenty that our hospital could do to grow and promote our services to families.

The CNA press release also quotes Leslie Ester, a local RN who previously served as a nurse negotiator both at Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, and at Redwood Memorial.

“CNA represents approximately 3,500 nurses at Providence Health hospitals across the state from Humboldt County to San Bernardino and from Napa to Long Beach.”  -CNA/NNU statement from March 4th  [Photo of Nurse Leslie Ester, CNA rally at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, by Ryan Hutson]

In the absence of a written plan of development to review, or any public presentation regarding the planned consolidation, the public is currently unable to clearly assess what changes are in store. With the pending closure of the OB department at Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna, Humboldt County will have only two locations to rely on in cases of emergency labor and delivery- both hospitals being situated in the urban metropolis around Humboldt Bay.  People living within the city limits and in the immediate Fortuna area will have an additional 25 minute drive in order to reach emergency OB services, while the expansive areas to the south and east will add that same additional drive to their already long road to travel before they reach the steps of the delivery room in Eureka. 

The nearest hospital with obstetrics emergency capacity as an alternative to Providence St. Joseph for Southern Humboldt families would be driving south to Ukiah, a distance of about 90 miles on the freeway.