MEDIA ADVISORY FOR:
February 15, 2023
Media Contact: Maria Leal – [email protected]
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Caregivers and allies will protest and picket on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 11:30 am at HCA’s Regional Medical Center in San Jose, the first of several protests to be held this spring across HCA Healthcare facilities in California. Healthcare workers say they are understaffed, overworked, and underpaid at HCA’s five California hospitals, putting patients and caregivers at risk.
“The hospital keeps staffing levels and pay so low that we simply have too many patients and not enough caregivers,” said Bolivar Rivera, a Patient Care Tech at HCA’s Regional Medical Center. “Patient care is suffering with long waits for everything from the emergency room to meals. Caregivers are burnt out, and it’s putting our patients at risk. It breaks our hearts because HCA does this on purpose – so they can pay out profits to their shareholders. It’s got to stop.”
The pickets will continue throughout HCA hospitals this February and March and it comes on the heels of a national report released by SEIU, the nation’s largest union of healthcare workers, revealing a dangerous pattern of understaffing at HCA hospitals. Care Crisis: How Low Staffing Contributes to Patient Care Failures at HCA Hospitals analyzes federal data to demonstrate systemic, chronic short staffing at HCA hospitals and reveals how it directly impacts patient care.
This chronic short staffing has allowed HCA Healthcare to rake in billions of dollars, resulting in huge payouts for executives and shareholders. In 2021, HCA reported nearly $7 billion in profits and distributed $8 billion in payouts to shareholders. Since 2011, HCA has paid out more than $32 billion to investors.
# # #
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is a healthcare justice union of more than 100,000 healthcare workers, patients, and healthcare activists united to ensure affordable, accessible, high-quality care for all Californians, provided by valued and respected healthcare workers. Learn more at www.seiu-uhw.org.