Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital nurses join statewide strike

April 30--Six months after playing an integral role in launching the new Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, registered nurses went on strike Thursday morning, protesting proposed cuts to their benefits and what they say are staff shortages that are creating unsafe conditions for patients.

Nurses walked along Mark West Springs Road on Thursday morning, carrying picket signs and eliciting the occasional honk from a car horn. A white shade tent was set up near the main driveway entrance to the new hospital and music was played on a small public address system.

Security guards watched from the Sutter Health parking lots and small "No Trespassing" signs were posted in landscaping along the sidewalk. The striking nurses, who are represented by the California Nurses Association, stayed along the sidewalk.

"In the face of millions of dollars of profit, Sutter continues to leave us short-staffed, without adequate breaks," said Laura Hinerfeld, an intensive care unit nurse and a member of the nurses' labor bargaining team.

A local Sutter representative dismissed Thursday's strike as a standard tactic in the union's "playbook." Sutter and the union have been in negotiations since June 2014, when the nurses' previous contract expired.

Hospital spokesman Shaun Ralston described the progress of local negotiations as "close." He said CNA nurses in Santa Rosa have less of a reason to strike than those at other hospitals. The local Sutter strike is part of a larger picketing campaign this week involving about 5,000 CNA nurses.

"The signs that are out there say things like cutting patient services or ratios to patients ... our local negotiations haven't proposed any of those things," said Ralston, adding that Sutter nurses in Santa Rosa are "superstars" and are well-compensated for their work.

But Nancy Anderson, a nurse in Sutter's neonatal intensive care unit, said Sutter is resisting a union proposal that would tie nurse-to-patient ratios to the level of patient illness.

"They staff according to numbers and not the level of illness," Anderson said.

Nurses said Thursday that a shortage of nurses and beds in the new hospital is resulting in longer waits and health care delay, particularly in the emergency department.

Ralston said that such delays are a result of more patients accessing care because of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. In many cases, he said, people are seeking care in the emergency room for problems that would be more effectively treated in an urgent care clinic, such as sprains.

Patients with less urgent conditions are going to be "lower on the totem pole,' he said.

CNA represents about 420 nurses in Santa Rosa. CNA nurses also went on strike at Sutter hospitals in Northern California, including facilities in Roseville, Burlingame, Auburn and Tracy.

The union said nurses also struck Thursday in Los Angeles and at Kaiser Permanente'sLos Angles Medical Center. Nurses are scheduled to strike Friday at Providence Health hospitals in Torrance and Santa Monica, the union said.

The strike Thursday is the second nurses strike in Santa Rosa this week. On Monday and Tuesday, nurses at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital went on strike because of stalled contract negotiations. Nurses at Memorial say they are resisting proposals that would cut their health care benefits and put them behind nurses at local Kaiser Permanente hospitals.

Sutter nurses said Thursday they objected to proposed changes to certain health plans. Hinerfeld, the Sutter nurse, said Sutter is trying to shift health plan costs onto nurses.

Hinerfeld and other Anderson said that for those who chose Sutter's exclusive provider organization plan, co-pays would be greatly increased and a new "co-insurance" would significantly increase nurses' out-of-pocket costs. EPO members, like those with an HMO, must use the EPO's provider network for care.

Ralston said the proposed increases in EPO co-pays are reasonable and that the premium for the plan is free.

The scene Thursday was is in stark contrast to the sense of cooperation and goodwill that dominated last year's move from the old Sutter facility on Chanate Road.

Ralston said he didn't think the strike would poison relations between nurses and hospital administration.

"In our local bargaining table, we're really close," he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or [email protected]. On Twitter @renofish.

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