August 8, 2023

LOS ANGELES – Healthcare workers will hold a protest at Prime Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood on Tuesday, August 8th, at 12 p.m. to call attention to the short-staffing crisis and its effects on patients and healthcare workers.

After years of chronic understaffing and battling the COVID pandemic, healthcare workers are calling on management to provide safe staffing levels and additional support to retain and attract more caregivers to the hospital.

“We are tired of not getting the support we need from our employer. We’re constantly short-staffed, patients have to wait longer to receive care, and then we’re rushed and put under unnecessary strain when one person has to do the jobs of multiple people,” said Michelle Parker, a financial counselor at Centinela Hospital. “Management is always pushing patients through the door without giving us adequate time to do all we need to do to make sure everyone’s safety is a priority.”

Earlier this year, investigators from the California Department of Public Health cited Centinela Hospital for several violations that could threaten patient care, including “a nurse having to juggle four patients along with duties as a charge nurse, which ‘had the potential to result in patient needs not being met.‘”

On July 25, Centinela Hospital Medical Center announced it will close its Maternal Child Health Services on October 25, 2023, leaving the Inglewood community without any Obstetrics, Labor and Delivery, or Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU).

In 2021, Prime Healthcare Services and the Prime Healthcare Foundation made more than $263 million in profits from its California facilities. Prime operates healthcare facilities in 14 states nationwide.