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Caregivers to Expose West Hills Medical Center's Unsafe Staffing Levels at ER Groundbreaking Ceremony

Posted on: Monday, 8 May 2006, 18:06 CDT

WEST HILLS, Calif., May 8 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, May 10, hospital caregivers will speak out at the groundbreaking ceremony for the West Hills Medical Center Emergency Room expansion. The workers, who are represented by SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW) and SEIU 121RN, are often assigned more patients than can safely be handled in what they call a deliberate attempt by hospital management to increase profits. West Hills Medical Center is owned by HCA, which is the world's largest for-profit health care corporation. Caregivers complain that staffing levels are set by the corporate parent company, leaving all attempts to discuss patient and worker safety and workload issues at the local level virtually useless.

At the ceremony, caregivers will provide personal stories about the negative impact of understaffing on their patients and release data from independent studies that link the hospital's practice of short staffing with serious deficiencies in patient care.

"It's time for the hospital administration to break new ground in their relationship with their own caregivers and patients. We support the hospital's expansion, but it's important to realize that a bigger building doesn't create better care for our patients. It's not progress if the company deliberately continues to short staff the hospital," said Sue Denardo, a Radiology Technologist at West Hills Medical Center.

WHO: West Hills Medical Center caregivers and supporters. WHEN: Wednesday, May 10, 9:00 a.m. WHERE: West Hills Hospital & Medical Center, 7300 Medical Center Dr., West Hills, CA CONTACT: Thea Lavin 510-520-7732

SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West

CONTACT: Thea Lavin of SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West,+1-510-520-7732

Web site: http://www.seiu-uhw.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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