Shh…St. Joseph Hospital Quietly Invites Community to Attend Public Forum, Submit Questions About Slated Fortuna OB Closure

Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka quietly scheduled a question and answer forum for today, Wednesday, April 7th, at 6 p.m. to address local stakeholder concerns regarding the slated closure of the Redwood Memorial Hospital Obstetrics unit. 

But most people don’t know about it.

Screengrab of public forum notice on the St. Joseph Hospital website, April 6th, 2021. 

Screengrab of public forum notice on the St. Joseph Hospital website, April 6th, 2021. .

While the hospital group has been circulating notifications among nurses and other staff, the invitation was not released to the local media or made publicly known aside from being posted on the company’s website.  

The Providence St. Joseph Hospital administration limited circulation of the notice to their website and some “social channels” telling only people who are connected to those platforms and social media sites about the opportunity for public discourse on the controversial and pivotal project. 

Expressing frustration, worried that concerned community members were as yet unaware of the hushed plan to hold a conversation about the approaching closure of Redwood Memorial’s Obstetrics unit, a local woman, Cassie Nichols, told us that she was not made aware of this follow-up meeting, even after having participated in the last one.  She explained, “As someone who submitted questions to the last meeting, I did not receive any notification of this follow up meeting, and have yet to find anyone within our community who is aware of the meeting.”

On reaching out to Providence St. Joseph Hospital’s Communications Director Christian Hill for additional feedback and comment, he provided a link to the hospital’s website in response, and confirmed that no press release was formally issued to the public, stating, “We’ve been sharing the information on our social channels and website.”  No additional information was provided.

A previous forum on the same subject – the projected closure of Redwood Memorial Hospital’s OB unit – held in early March was similarly scheduled without much ado and also presented using the Microsoft Teams application.  That meeting was harshly criticized by local healthcare staff and concerned community members as “exclusionary” due to the obscure nature of the platform ‘Teams’ and the lack of notice to stakeholders who would have been interested.   

The email sent from CNA representative Ian Seldon not only takes issue with the presentation method, but also calls attention to slated job losses related to the OB unit closure.  The CNA union representative states in the email, “In the spirit of the Providence core value of “Integrity” and on behalf of the 18 Registered Nurses that you are proposing to lay off at Redwood’s New Beginning’s unit, I am writing to recommend that Providence make this coming Wednesday’s public forum about the reduction of county health services and layoff of Nurses an actual public forum worthy of the term “public forum.”

INSERT TEAMS #1:Screenshot showing the platform Microsoft Teams, which is the chosen program for the public forum.  To join the April 7th forum at 6 o’clock PM, community members can click here to access the Teams portal. 

Screenshot showing the platform Microsoft Teams, which is the chosen program for the public forum.  To join the April 7th forum at 6 p.m., community members can click here

The Microsoft Teams Live platform is similar to Zoom, which has become the go-to for professional group meetings in the time of COVID-19, being relied upon for everything from school classes to contested courtroom hearings.  The previous public comment session which took place just over a month ago produced little new information for community members to assess, and also failed to adequately address the questions submitted for the event, according to participants as well as according to local healthcare union members.   An email to Humboldt County’s Providence St Joseph Hospital CEO Roberta Luskin-Hawk from California Nurses Association (CNA) refers to the March 4th forum and demands that the CEO accommodate union members’ requests for transparency.  

In the previous meeting, some people trying to access the platform were not able to join the event at all.  Some said they had more luck in accessing the event using a desktop computer, rather than a mobile device such a smartphone, laptop, or ipad which may prompt the user to download an application or simply may not be compatible at all.  

Screenshot of a mobile device attempting to access the April 7th forum via Teams communication portal.  

Screenshot of a mobile device attempting to access the April 7th forum via Teams communication portal.  

The recent email from California Nurses Association to CEO Luskin-Hawk calls attention to what is seen by CNA as hypocrisy. The email CNA Labor Representative Ian Seldon delivered earlier this week was short and to the point. It stated, 

The last Providence “public forum” was a tightly controlled private forum in which questions were carefully screened and omitted by Providence marketing staff. Numerous members of the community asked me why hospital representatives such as yourself and Dan Kelly appeared to be afraid to address actual questions from impacted workers and the public.  

Again, I encourage you to walk the talk of the Providence core value of “Integrity” and host a true public forum on Wednesday. Given the cuts and layoffs you are proposing, the community deserves it.

The scheduled meeting is described as a public forum to educate the community about the changes to come, and is not expected to address layoffs issued in the wake of the announced OB unit closure.  The questions and answer forum is expected to focus on the consolidation of services at Providence St. Joseph in Eureka, from Fortuna Redwood Memorial Hospital’s current labor and delivery department. 

The March 31st notice states in part,

As in the original forum early in March, stakeholders from our leadership and clinical teams will provide key factors supporting the transition plan to a single, high-quality program at SJE, effective July 1, 2021. The community is invited to submit questions during the Microsoft Teams Live event platform or by sending them to [email protected].

The statement by Providence describes the event as an educational opportunity where people who log in are able to ask questions directly in the chat section, and provides an email address for submitting questions in advance to the event moderator.

Community members who plan to participate in the online forum via Microsoft Teams Live at 6 o’clock p.m. will have the option of submitting questions using the Teams program in real time.  Additionally, the public has been invited to provide questions to the event moderators in advance via email to [email protected] .

A successful connection to the platform may look like this, and presumably does not require a person to download the mobile app, if using a desktop computer. 

A successful connection to the platform may look like this, and presumably does not require a person to download the mobile app, if using a desktop computer.

 

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

24 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
VMG
Guest
VMG
2 years ago

The notice should say:

“We are going to do, exactly what we want to do! We will do it without regard for public opinion, just like we always do! We will do it, mostly in secret, and mostly with regard only for our organization’s profits and level of commerce, even though we are missioned to serve the public, and to care for our community. Whatever happens in the future, rest assured that the concerns of staff will be ignored. As will the concerns of our patients. Be further assured, that your concerns, do not concern us.”

Roberta Luskin Hawk, you will remember, is from Chicago. Dr Hawk is about as far removed from “in touch with the community” as her reported annual salary of $1.3 Million Dollars/year can get her…

As for the rest of Providence/St Joseph’s, this is one of the most repressive and “old school” organizations in modern healthcare. Back-room deals, corporate nastiness, and illegal dealings, all come easily, to many hospitals.

These days, healthcare is not for taking care of patients. Healthcare is for making money. Many healthcare organizations are completely corrupt, highly nepotistic, and perfectly incompetent within their administrative and HR offices. St Joseph’s represents the absolute peak of horrible public image, ugly employee relations, and apathy towards the public’s trust and interest. The recent epidemic shows us that hospitals are understaffed, poorly equipped and supplied, unprepared to respond, and overly focused on cost control over patient safety.

As far as women, the Catholic Church wants women to be married, wearing skirts, and subservient to men. Women, in their view, should have no right to control their reproductive health, should not have access to birth control or safe abortion, and the Catholic Church feels that women should meekly appreciate their place as breeding stock for future generations of Catholics, and that women should stay in that place for their entire lives.

It’s probably not possible for the public to gain any measure of control over this awful hospital company, but, you can choose to just not use it, as I chose, years ago, not to work there.

Attend this event, if only to watch Providence screw over your community, which is pretty well screwed for healthcare already! Only if the community bands together and stands with the Nurses and Employees who are protesting this poorly-conceived plan to centralize OB services, only a large general strike and general boycott of St Joseph’s is likely to have any effect upon the plans of this crooked and largely misguided organization.

It is a short step to closing Women’s health services entirely, and I predict the closing of Redwood Hospital in the near future! Remember, they have been planning to do this for years…

Consolidation of services into one building, one campus, has happened to other communities, and “Faith Based” systems have neglected and underserved other communities in many locations already. The obtaining of a monopoly in services is the first step, and our State and Federal Governments are complicit.

Don’t let Providence run amok! Half the population is depending upon you to join in protest: Meanwhile,

DON’T WORK FOR ST JOSEPH”S.

BOYCOTT ST JOSEPH”S

SUPPORT THE NURSES! SUPPORT YOUR HEALTHCARE WORKERS!

Cordwainer Bird
Guest
Cordwainer Bird
2 years ago
Reply to  VMG

Yes, let’s all boycott one of the few hospitals in a predominantly rural county! Gunshot wound? Head-on collision? COVID? Just say no!

You need to lay off of whatever Kool-Aid you’ve been chugging. This is the point where ideology intersects with public health in a dangerous way. Next thing you know you’ll be telling us to burn down 5G towers in protest.

Steve Koch
Guest
Steve Koch
2 years ago

not just rural, coastal rural (i.e. even worse). Boycotting St. Joe seems insane.

Are the nurses being laid off or do they have jobs at St. Joe if they want them? Seems like the union wants hospital customers to do their dirty work for them.

Zipline
Guest
Zipline
2 years ago

The 5g towers is a good idea!

VMG
Guest
VMG
2 years ago

Well, I don’t know about towers, but, I am one person, and I already boycott St Joseph’s. Won’t work for liars and thieves or abusers either. St Joseph’s is an awful employer, and the Administrators, HR people and the bastardized “Mission” are plain evil.

You are one person too, so, my advice, find another provider!

It’s the only force applicable by the public that will have an effect.

Business is off, but you can make it get even farther off… Money is the only thing a corporate healthcare organization will consider. They can pander to you, meet with you, ask you for your opinion, but, in the end, they will do what makes the most money for the company!

Remember, once it closes, it won’t ever be back! Once they close Redwood, which has been under discussion since 2013, there will be an empty building which will stay empty… If you think it can’t happen, you are very badly mistaken…

You believe what you want, but I believe that St Joseph’s does not care about your community, or women’s health, or employee and patient safety. St Joseph’s makes record profits while understaffed, poorly equipped, and badly supplied. Providence/St Joseph’s has little regard for State/Federal/Employment law, and the organization promotes harassment, abuse, and illegal employee actions as a routine practice! That’s why there is a Union!

If you condone it, and you think it’s good enough, well heck, go for it!

I want something better, a better place to work, a better steward for the public trust, and you should too!

DangerOverThere
Guest
DangerOverThere
2 years ago
Reply to  VMG

Having worked for PSJH, I completely agree.

I was a manager and spent plenty of time in the offices of former CEO O’Brien (predecessor to Luskin-Hawk) and recently dismissed Chief Medical Officer Parks. As a matter of routine, their consistent #1 concern was money. Community never came up and patients only to the extent that they involved money or lawsuits.

While working there, I met someone outside PSJH who has lived in Humboldt for many years. They gave me this advice: As a member of management, you would be wise to get an attorney now because at some point, senior managers are going to lay blame for bad things at your feet. Thankfully, I took the advice.
Sure enough, the day came. Shortly after giving 2 of their senior administrators (officers) my attorney’s name and telephone number, they completely backed-off and when I voluntarily resigned several months later, they paid me unexpected thousands for no specific reason.

PSJH is an organization that is a danger to patients and the community.

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago

Strange that KIEM TV-3 had a piece about it on their 5pm news yesterday. With an interview by the St. Joe’s head about people getting their questions answered. At least it’s a strange way to keep it quiet unless it’s assumed no one watches the news.

Steve Koch
Guest
Steve Koch
2 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Great point.

Kym Kemp
Admin
2 years ago

Here’s the link. https://www.facebook.com/RedwoodNews/posts/5456249314417181

I suspect they found out about it like we did and asked directly.

Deborah Morton
Guest
Deborah Morton
2 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Not to mention many people in Southern Humboldt don’t have access to KIEM. Country living mostly prevents that connection. I certainly have now way to watch the local news and I’m not alone. I have written Jared Huffman about this issue. Anyone reading this should do the same.
Here’s my letter, it went out on March 30, 2021: Dear Rep. Huffman, I writing in hopes I can move you to intervene in a developing dilemma in Humboldt County. Providence St. Joseph had made a decision to close the birthing unit from Redwood Memorial Hospital. For the women in Southern Humboldt, the distance to a birthing facility could be at best 65 miles and at worst nearly 100 miles to the nearest birthing facility. This includes pre and post natal visits. Not to mention the birth itself. I have lived in this community for over 40 years. I continue to watch our population increase, yet our services have become less than skeletal. I would appreciate any help that could come from you and/or your office. I personally am 60 years old and my children are now passing child bearing themselves, but there are so many women in this community that continue to suffer loss after loss in their care. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Southern Humboldt Community Hospital which is now called Jerold Phelps Hospital was equipped with a permanent staff of 4 physicians, a surgery, CCU, OB/GYN ward, ER, and acute care hospital beds. We had an in-house kitchen, auto-clave, as well as laboratory and radiology. At this time our hospital has become a swing-bed nursing facility, we no longer have surgery, ICU, OB/GYN, Kitchen, Central supply, and reduction of physicians and no acute care beds. When our community lost the birthing unit in the 1980s, it was so distressing we would have to travel over 50 miles, now that will double again. Please take a moment to look into our situation here in Southern Humboldt. The healthcare needs has become dire and this is not our only area of need. Thank you for your time. Deborah Morton

Kym Kemp
Admin
2 years ago
Reply to  Deborah Morton

Deborah, If you like, I can post this as a letter to the editor.

A
Guest
A
2 years ago
Reply to  Deborah Morton

Nice letter. I don’t get it either. There are more people, not less, and yet services such as health care are less.

Nobody
Guest
Nobody
2 years ago

Spent last weekend using MS Teams. Yes, you need to download the app for your computer.
And mostly it works, but you’ll be in and out of the conversation if you don’t have a Really Good Connection. Designed for Urban Connections, not rural ones.

The fact that they publicized it on Facebook is mildly offensive, given how many people refuse to use it.

Judith Gilkey
Guest
Judith Gilkey
2 years ago

i wish they would just drop the name St. Joseph as Provident is in no way at all what St. Joes was they are nothing like st. joes

Old Boys Club
Guest
Old Boys Club
2 years ago

Clearly women’s health doesn’t matter at all to them.

Martin
Guest
Martin
2 years ago

Going to that meeting I am afraid will be a total waste of your time. St. Joseph will do as they please no matter what folks might have to say. They have proved this in the past, and it will continue. Their attitude shown towards young women and their babies makes me sick to my stomach. Evil does as evil wants!

Juanita
Guest
Juanita
2 years ago

Please remember to VOTE for representatives like our own Huffman who support MEDICARE4ALL.

OfCourse
Guest
OfCourse
2 years ago

Oh, please.
Providence St. Joseph Health is a Catholic-run health system and for Humboldt County, falls under the jurisdiction of the Santa Rosa Catholic Archdiocese.

The mere suggestion that all these Catholics would be deceptive or exploitative or mainly interested in money is completely ridiculous.

I used to work there, believe me, everything is always on the up-and-up with Providence St. Joseph Health. Really.

Taurus Ballzhoff
Guest
Taurus Ballzhoff
2 years ago
Reply to  OfCourse

Thanks for a good laugh…
I vote for this comment as the most comical and entertaining single post in 2021.
Thanks again!

OfCourse
Guest
OfCourse
2 years ago

Glad to be of service.
I’m blushing over the vote.

Summer
Guest
Summer
2 years ago

Someone should ask them about the impact on staffing it’s going to have at st Joe’s more patients means we need more people uh more work for the same amount of pay it’s not right

L.Smith
Guest
L.Smith
2 years ago

42 years ago my wife was having our third son. She generally clamped up just before delivery and our midwife was over her head. In our borrowed Volkswagen van we made a run for ST Josephs. My son was born safely. We lived in Salmon Creek. Gerald Phelps, was out as my wife was not happy with his response when we had made a similar run 6 years before that with our daughter. I am offering up this story as an example of how we need the St. Joseph birthing room. At least within driving distance.

Kindness
Guest
Kindness
2 years ago

I’m so disgusted with this whole thing St. joe’s they know fortuna needs to have a birthing department , shame on them maybe there should be a protest or something but it feels like such a lost cause St Joe’s is a big hospital chain and they are destroying the community and putting women and babies lives in danger

Local Human
Guest
Local Human
2 years ago

They have tried for years to find OB physicians to work there to no avail. Paying traveling physicians is extremely costly and doesn’t fill the full needs for a real chief of staff duties’. (Permanent doctors guide, run, review problems, make medical policy and procedure etc)

MD shortages are a central issue here. Many of the commenters assumptions and judgements are misguided. Hospitals are facing huge infrastructure, financial, and logistical issues not the least of which is there are not enough docs in the US. They have made some poor decisions also.