SF, Calif: Hospitals gearing up for RN strike at Sutter Health facilities

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

BAY AREA HOSPITALS FACE POSSIBLE WALKOUT BY THOUSANDS OF NURSES

San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.healthleaders.com/news/newspage1.php?contentid=36330

Bay Area hospitals face possible walkout by thousands of nurses

Some 2,200 nurses at four San Francisco-area hospitals owned by Sutter Health plan to walk off their jobs July 17. That's just the most serious of labor problems at local hospitals.

San Francisco Chronicle, July 12, 2002

"....With 2,200 registered nurses represented by the California Nurses Association set to walk out on July 17 at four Bay Area hospitals, one of them -- St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco -- took an unusual step Sunday when it began to refuse new admissions 10 days before a possible one-day strike.

"We're emptying the hospital," St. Luke's spokeswoman Darcy Brown said. Thursday, the hospital, which has about 260 beds, was down to slightly more than 100 patients, with several of the floors deserted or with just a handful of patients........

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/07/12/BU76656.DTL

NEVER heard of hospital closing an ER TEN DAYS before a strike. Seems like a convenient 'excuse" to decrease no pay patients from accessing hospital care.