Nurses say that owner HCA has failed to address record turnover despite massive profits, leaving the hospital unsafely staffed.

WHAT: Registered Nurses from HCA’s Riverside Community Hospital will hold a picket and rally to protest unsafe staffing, equipment deficiencies and other subpar working conditions.

WHY: Nurses at HCA’s Riverside Community Hospital say they are stretched too thin, and often work with a skeleton staff that jeopardizes the safety of their patients. As contract negotiations enter their fourth month, Nurses contend that management has not seriously considered proposals they’ve issued designed to stem the tide of staff turnover and improve safety and working conditions at the hospital. Nurses say that HCA has the resources to make staffing, safety, and facility improvements, but the company has instead prioritized profit. Last month, HCA reported revenues of $15.8 billion in second-quarter earnings, up one billion from the previous year.

The concerns that Nurses have raised throughout negotiations echo those that led them to stage a ten-day strike in 2020. Nurses say that since the pandemic, conditions have actually worsened, and crisis level staffing has become the norm. What has changed, they say, is Nurses’ willingness to tolerate HCA’s exploitation of their work ethic and their dedication to patients.

“Across the country, Nurses are fed up with being hailed as heroes, while they are treated as expendable assets by corporate hospitals,” said Monique Hernandez, Vice-President of SEIU 121RN and an RN at Riverside Community Hospital. “At HCA, that phenomenon is even worse. The most profitable hospital owner in America should be a leader when it comes to patient and staff safety, not a leader in the race to the bottom in the pursuit of profit,” Hernandez said.

HCA has been beset by controversy this year. A data breach in July exposed personal information of millions of patients and led to multiple class-action lawsuits. An NBC investigation in June revealed that HCA hospitals inappropriately pushed patients into hospice to reduce in-hospital mortality rates, and an SEIU report released in January documented systemic low staffing at HCA hospitals nationwide.

This member-led organization is committed to supporting optimum working conditions that allow nurses to provide quality patient care and safety.