RNs Welcome Blue Ribbon Panel Call To Rebuild St. Luke's Hospital

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

[color=#333333]rns welcome blue ribbon panel call to rebuild st. luke's hospital

[color=#333333]the california nurses association/national nurses organizing committee welcomed the recommendation of the st. luke's blue ribbon panel to rebuild the endangered san francisco hospital.

[color=#333333]officials of the sutter health corporation have, in the past few years, been steadily reducing acute care services at the mission-area hospital as part of a plan to close the facility while shifting hospital and emergency care to wealthier neighborhoods, as part of a process condemned as "medical redlining" by the san francisco board of supervisors.

[color=#333333]"we are extremely gratified that the panel has recommended saving this vital community resource as a critically needed acute care hospital for a medically underserved community," said cna/nnoc co-president zenei cortez....

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/114024.php

[mdfog10]

Fantastic news :yeah: Lesson to Sutter: The Nurses and Community are watching and will not stand for cherry picking or medical relining of our patients.

[RN4MERCY]

Great post and a reminder to nurses about their authority and duty under the law to act as patient advocates. We have the power, if we use it collectively, and in unity, to create positive and vital change. Sutter health system nurses, represented by the California Nurses Association, led the way and were at the heart of the grassroots campaign. The convening of the Blue Ribbon Panel is the result of their efforts on behalf of the community. Their efforts honor our proud history as nurses; for that they are to be commended!

Closing St. Lukes, which is in the middle of a disparately impoverished immigrant community, is a threat to public health and safety. It's a decision that certainly wasn't made with the best interests of the community in mind. We must protest injustice; we can't separate patient advocacy from social and political advocacy.

http://www.rn.ca.gov/regulations/title16.shtml

1443.5. Standards of Competent Performance

6) Acts as the client's advocate, as circumstances require, by initiating action to improve health care or to change decisions or activities which are against the interests or wishes of the client, and by giving the client the opportunity to make informed decisions about health care before it is provided.