Glendale Nurse to Supervisors: “Work with Us to Enhance Quality”

“My name is Marie Hernandez.  I’m a Registered Nurse at Glendale Health Center.  On behalf of my colleagues and my patients, as well as the 85,000 members of SEIU Local 721, I call on your Board to protect public healthcare services at our clinic.
“Many questions persist regarding your proposal to privatize Glendale Health Center, but one thing is guaranteed: if you turn over the clinic to a private operator, the relationships between patients and their providers will be severed forever.  Many of our patients are seniors and first-generation immigrants.  Nothing in medicine is more sacred than the relationship between patients and the doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff who care for them; we shouldn’t let a private bureaucracy come between us and our patients.  
“You have been talking about disrupting our relationships with our patients since February. Today’s budget provides funding for our clinic for the year ahead. With no fiscal imperative to privatize Glendale Health Center your Board should instead partner with us to continue to enhance and replicate the vital and excellent operation we’ve built there.  Our clinic represents the kind of culturally competent model medical home which will become the industry standard, particularly as we ready ourselves for a new environment under healthcare reform.   
“Instead of taking piecemeal risks by replacing a model public clinic with a private operator, your Board should work with us and other stakeholders to develop a comprehensive ambulatory care strategy.   And with the recent revelations regarding $22 million in self-dealing and executive compensation at Tarzana Treatment Center, we are deeply concerned about the lack of accountability under any privatization scenario.  
“Too many questions about hidden costs, unsustainability of services and lack of public accountability cloud your plans to privatize Glendale Health Center. We should instead be talking about collaborating to enhance quality, increase efficiencies and revenue and expand access to care.  Your Board’s commitment to drop privatization and work with us on these challenges would be a good first step.”