Here is an open letter from one of our patron. The Eye feels it is important to support a good cause for the right reasons. Please give your support to the men and women who care for you or your families’ in times of need.
Playing Doctor is No Joke
By Frank Froschle
A recent article in the Albuquerque Journal shows that executives of Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe have been bargaining in bad faith with the hospital’s nurses and staff.
According to the article, the hospital made more than $21 million in 2009.
A year earlier, the hospital cleared almost $19 million.
Over this same time period, Christus St. Vincent CEO Alex Valdez’s annual salary increased from $271,000 in 2004 to $615,000 in 2009, while Board Member Ernie Sadau received more than $1,019,675 in 2009 from the Christus home office in Texas.
The pattern is clear.
Hospital executives have been taking money out of the hospital to increase their pay, instead of sharing those profits with the patients and staff who helped make those profits possible in the first place.
In 2008, the average nurse at St. Vincent’s earned $52,000 and received no raises.
Now hospital executives are proposing to endanger patient safety by reducing staffing ratios.
St. Vincent’s is New Mexico’s oldest hospital.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t been the same since Texas-based Christus Health took over the hospital and hired some high-priced California lawyers to start rationing care.
While this approach may have raised profits, it has compromised patient safety and endangered the kind of ethical, compassionate, community-based care that St. Vincent’s nurses and staff have been delivering for more than 35 years.
Mr. Valdez and all those out-of-town Christus lawyers and executives need to settle the contract in favor of St. Vincent’s nurses and staff, so they can get back to doing their jobs.
Frank Froschle
2320 Brother Abdon
Santa Fe, NM 87505
6 comments:
This is not surprising. The Eye might want to delve into the corruption at UNM Health Sciences Center. No rAises for the peons but the Powers That Be are doubling their salaries. The Dean is now the chancellor. Brown noses are getting high positions with no college degree. HR is supposed to keep an eye on illegal hiring of Frieda and relatives and this is not happening. So lo g as I remain anonymous, I can name names as can 75 percent of staff and faculty. There is so much waste and stealing going on at UNM.
This is really sad. People are depending on these hospitals to provide care for the sick. Perhaps one day, these CEO's and lawyers will need hospital care and hopefully they will reap the benifits of what they have sowed.
What about the patients waiting 25+ hours in the ER at UNM? Some kid with his fingers almost hacked off was forced to go to another hospital. There are so many problems at UNM and so many, many lawsuits. The administration would put the funds into hiring more staff, there might be fewer lawsuits.
Thanks to the Eye for widening the lens.
As usual, this topic goes by the wayside for lack of public outcry.
They call that hospital St Victims....
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