Nevada: Filipino nurses charge hospital layoffs put profit before patients

By Bev Llorente, ABS-CBN North America Bureau

Feb. 5, 2014

HENDERSON, Nev. – Hundreds of registered nurses from St. Rose Dominican Hospitals rallied in front of the Sienna Campus Hospital in protest over planned layoffs.

St. Rose recently announced plans to shed dozens of its 3,500 hospital workers in Southern Nevada.

“Since they are cutting the skilled nurses we have to take on more patient loads,” Marvin Cruz, a registered nurse at St. Rose, said. “That makes the patients more unsafe.”

“For me, I’m a new grad,” St. Rose registered nurse Ronald Adlaon said. “I’m a new nurse and I need that experience there on the floor. Without those people there, who am I going to go to for help? Am I going to look into my book?”

The California Nurses Association leader confirms that 75 percent of the nurses at St. Rose Hospital are Filipinos and Asian Americans.

“The hospital is zeroing in on little mistakes,” Zenei Cortez of CNA said. “They are trying to get the nurses in trouble for every little thing. We are saying St. Rose should stop being punitive to the nurses because the nurses are there for their patients.”

In June of 2013, the company earned a profit of $812 million. In 2011 it was $917 million and $135 million in 2012.

“I do believe to satisfy their shareholders that they are putting profits before patients,” Carrie Carter, a registered nurse, said. “We’ve seen documentation of their profits and we, as nurses, are always for patient safety. All health care workers, doctors, and respiratory therapists—we believe in patient before profits.”

In a statement, St. Rose management blames the reductions on the recession and reduced reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers.