Planned closures of ICU, surgery services, and pediatric inpatient beds at Mercy Hospital and Unity Campus follow a pattern of corporate priorities by Allina executives
MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Sam Fettig
(c) 612-741-0662
sam.fettig@mnnurses.org
Lauren Bloomquist
(c) 651-376-9709
lauren.bloomquist@mnnurses.org
(St. Paul) – March 25, 2024 – Tomorrow, nurses with the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) will join patients, community members, and other healthcare providers and workers to speak out on the devastating impacts of the planned corporate closures by Allina executives at Mercy Hospital and Unity Campus. Earlier this month, MNA nurses joined healthcare providers and workers with the Doctors Council and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa to highlight concerns about the planned closures of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and surgical services at Unity Campus and pediatric inpatient beds at Mercy Hospital.
This planned closure by Allina executives will eliminate more than 100 full-time equivalent positions for pediatricians, nurses, and other healthcare providers and workers and will leave patients waiting longer or traveling further for care. These latest closures follow a pattern of misplaced corporate priorities and callous cuts by Allina Health executives under the leadership of CEO Lisa Shannon. For dropping the axe on the chopping block of patient care services, Shannon took more than half a million dollars in bonus and incentive pay in 2022, as part of her total compensation of $2.6 million.
In addition to speaking out at tomorrow’s hearing, healthcare providers and workers urge community members to sign the petition at unionpedspower.org. Doctors and nurses are also urging Minnesota lawmakers to support a proposed law this year, H.F. 3700/S.F. 4382, part of nurses’ Healing Greed Agenda. This law would require greater public transparency around hospital and service closures by hospital executives.
MDH PUBLIC HEARING ON ALLINA MERCY-UNITY CLOSURES
- WHEN: Tuesday, March 26, 2024, 6:00 P.M.
- WHERE: Microsoft Teams meeting
- WHO: MNA nurses, patients, community members, and other healthcare providers and workers
- WHAT: Public hearing on Allina executives’ planned closures at Mercy Hospital and Unity Campus
- WHY: To sound the alarm on the crisis of corporate greed in our care system