The California Nurses Association has announced, with regret, the
closing of a pediatrics center in Burlingame next month and a plan by
Mills-Peninsula Health Services to sell its skilled nursing and dialysis
units.
Mills-Peninsula, which made the unpopular decision several months ago to
shut down its acute rehab center in San Mateo, plans to close the units
in order to save the company an estimated $11 million a year. The
nurses' union opposes this plan and urges Mills-Peninsula to employ cost
saving efforts that will not mean laying off 219 healthcare workers,
including 69 registered nurses (RNs).
Mills-Peninsula is a Sutter Health affiliate that operates the Peninsula
Medical Center in Burlingame and the Mills Health Center in San Mateo.
Chief Executive Officer Bob Merwin announced the decision in an internal
memo, saying that changes have been necessitated because it is losing
reimbursement cash from Medicare, and more losses are expected next year
when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes effect. ?...
Medicare is already reducing the amount of money it pays doctors and
hospitals, and commercial insurers follow suit. The largest source of
funding for health care reform is coming from reduced Medicare
reimbursement to hospitals,? Merwin said in the memo.
The healthcare reform act has brought much resentment and widespread
abuses. Mills-Peninsula nurse Genel Morgan is suspicious of the
company's motives, but hopes that it is not merely using healthcare
reform as a convenient excuse for selling off the units, especially in
light of the millions that the company has spent to update its data
systems. Morgan, who has worked as a nurse for almost 40 years, is
worried that these closures will mean a frightening decline in the
quality of healthcare available to patients in the skilled-nursing and
dialysis units if they are sold. ?When they closed the acute rehab
center, it was a huge loss for the community,? Morgan said, pointing out
that a nursing upheaval does not translate well for patient care. Morgan
has cause for concern because nurses will no longer be a part of the
bargaining unit at Mills-Peninsula if the units are sold. While nurses
could theoretically be hired by the new company to work their former
jobs, Morgan reported that whoever buys the units will likely give
significant pay cuts to the nursing positions.
Mills-Peninsula spokeswoman Margie O'Clair said, ?Our first goal is to
keep the units where they are on site, just owned and managed by someone
else. The whole industry is going through this. Hospitals are doing this
everywhere.? She maintained that whoever buys the dialysis or
skilled-nursing units will be able to provide a similar level of service
in a more cost-effective way. Whatever company buys the units could
re-hire the former nurses, but senior nurses can also bid on other jobs
within the Mills-Peninsula system, which could bump less experienced
nurses from their jobs.
The two skilled-nursing facilities are short-term nursing homes with
about and 80 patient capacity. They are designed to bridge the gap
between hospital stays and home.
Mills-Peninsula expects that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act will increase their patient load, as 65,000 uninsured San Mateo
County residents expect to be insured soon. ?Hospitals throughout
Northern California and the country are exiting renal services and
skilled nursing. It has been demonstrated that other community providers
who focus exclusively on these specialized services can offer high
quality care more cost effectively,? Merwin said in the memo.
Mills-Peninsula's goal is to keep the dialysis and skilled-nursing units
at their current locations. ?Clinical and service quality will be a
major criterion for any companies we engage in the discussion, and we
will keep you informed along the way,? Merwin said in the memo. ?Of
course, we will stay true to the Mills-Peninsula commitment of fully
supporting employees through any changes that result from these
decisions.?