Open letter to Mayo's Government Relations Chair (Page 82)

Kathleen M. Harrington Mayo
Government Relations, Chair 200 First Street SW Rochester, MN 55905

Dear Ms. Harrington:

Thank you for bringing your Operations staff to meet with leaders from SEIU and UNITE HERE last Friday to discuss the Mayo Destination Medical Center (DMC) and the related legislative proposal. While we have significant concerns and unanswered questions, we are excited about the possibility of significant job growth in the health care and hospitality sectors.

We look forward to meeting again in the very near future and to discussing specific proposals about the future DMC workforce and how collective bargaining can ensure these are quality jobs. We feel that, along with the Minnesota Nurses Association, we can reach an agreement that will preserve Mayo’s competitive status and promote living wage jobs.

In particular we suggest you examine the following ideas as a basis for further conversation:
• Codifying what part of the future workforce would consist of expanded operations at Mayo Methodist and St. Mary’s hospitals which would be subject to accretion under the existing SEIU HCMN contract.
• A private neutrality and chard-check agreement with SEIU HCMN and MNA for some portion of Mayo’s new or existing healthcare workforce.

  • Assurances that any union hospitality facility demolished or restructured in the DMC zone would remain union.
  • A commitment that new hospitality facilities (employing workers under NAICS Code 721100) would be required to have a labor peace agreement in place prior to construction.

Precisely because the DMC proposal will have a tremendous impact, either for good or bad, on workers in the Rochester area, we need to get clear information from you before the bill moves forward in the legislature. Therefore we will send the attached letter to legislative leaders. It urges them to refrain from moving the bill forward until our questions have been answered.

On behalf of UNITE HERE Minnesota, MNA, and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota we hope that we can reach an agreement quickly and then work jointly to pass this bill.

Sincerely yours,

Nancy Goldman, President UNITE HERE, Local 17

Jamie Gulley, President SEIU Healthcare Minnesota

Linda Hamilton, RN, President Minnesota Nurses Association

Walt Frederickson, Executive Director Minnesota Nurses Association

Mayo Needs to Answer Key Questions About Destination Medical Center

On February 7, 2013, bills were introduced in the Minnesota Legislature to request more than a half billion dollars of state assistance to the Destination Medical Center (DMC) plans drafted by Mayo Clinic and Mayo Health System. This plan lacks transparency and failed to involve key stakeholders or affected communities in and around Rochester and the state of Minnesota. February 7 was the first time most people even knew there was a plan, much less what it contained. It is very clear that as things stand there are too many unanswered questions about DMC to justify support for the project.

Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), UNITE HERE Minnesota and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota represent three of the largest stakeholders affected by the proposed DMC. Representing nearly 50,000 families in the health care and hospitality industry in Minnesota, we are left with no choice but to OPPOSE the DMC plan until Mayo Clinic and Mayo Health System engage the community and all stakeholders to develop a DMC proposal they all understand and can support. Furthermore, we ask the legislature to withhold support for the DMC until Mayo answers key questions about the impact this proposal will have on our jobs, our homes and our communities.

1. What projects does the DMC envision building and where will they be located?

2. What jobs will be created and what do they look like; will they be union jobs or low paying jobs without benefits?

3. What is the impact on other health care and hospitality employers in the state of Minnesota?

4. Why does the DMC want authority to over-ride local government planning decisions and why should the state grant DMC the powers of eminent domain over our homes?

5. What is Mayo’s commitment to the state and low income patients in return for this tax payer money? How much charity care will be guaranteed in exchange for the state’s commitment to this project? Will Mayo be included as a provider in all health plans throughout the state?

6. Will recipients of this investment commit to labor peace agreements with the workers and the unions that represent them?

7. What will be the impact on our school districts and the impact on property taxes if tax-paying businesses are removed to make way for expanded non-profit (non-taxed) institutions?

The Minnesota Nurses Association unites 20,000 nurses in Minnesota’s Healthcare Industry, UniteHERE unites 6,000 workers in Minnesota’s Hospitality Industry and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota unites 17,000 workers in Minnesota’s Healthcare Industry, including more than 2,000 workers at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

PDF copy of letter: 130312_Mayo letter

Kathleen M. Harrington Mayo
Government Relations, Chair 200 First Street SW Rochester, MN 55905

Dear Ms. Harrington:

Thank you for bringing your Operations staff to meet with leaders from SEIU and UNITE HERE last Friday to discuss the Mayo Destination Medical Center (DMC) and the related legislative proposal. While we have significant concerns and unanswered questions, we are excited about the possibility of significant job growth in the health care and hospitality sectors.

We look forward to meeting again in the very near future and to discussing specific proposals about the future DMC workforce and how collective bargaining can ensure these are quality jobs.
… Read more about: Open letter to Mayo’s Government Relations Chair  »

LABOR UPDATES

Harry Kelber:   1914 – 2013     Harry Kelber spent 80 years as a labor activist. Through it all he championed worker ownership of their unions. When Labor Notes commissioned a roundtable on “organizing the unorganized” in 2007, Harry’s contribution argued that rank-and-file workers should be part of organizing drives.

HEALTH CARE 

Did Hospitals Profit Off Drugs Meant for the Poor?   An inquiry by a U.S. senator has found that three nonprofit hospitals in North Carolina have made millions from a discount drug program intended to help the poor and uninsured.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, April 3, 2013: RIP Harry Kelber; CAH Mortality Skyrockets  »

NOTES ON NURSING

Fatigue is Pervasive in the Health Care Industry; Directly Linked to On-the-job Errors     Sixty-nine percent of healthcare professionals surveyed said that fatigue had caused them to feel concern over their ability to perform during work hours. Even more alarmingly, nearly 65 percent of participants reported they had almost made an error at work because of fatigue and more than 27 percent acknowledged that they had actually made an error resulting from fatigue.

PA Considers Nursing by the Numbers   A pair of Democratic state lawmakers have introduced bills in both the House and Senate that would mandate a minimum number of registered nurses-to-patient ratio at all hospitals in the state.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, April 1, 2013: RN fatigue pervasive and harmful to patients  »

Nurses support Attorney General Review of Sanford-Fairveiw

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jan Rabbers
(office) 651-414-2861
(cell) 612-860-8858
jan.rabbers@mnnurses.org
Rick Fuentes
(office) 651-414-2863
(cell) 612-741-0662
rick.fuentes@mnnurses.org

(St. Paul) – March 28, 2013 – The Minnesota Nurses Association welcomes Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson’s inquiry into the possible merger of Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services and the continued corporatization of healthcare in Minnesota.  Investigators need to continue to look into the effects that big corporations are having on Minnesota patients.

“We congratulate Lori Swanson for having the courage to examine any deal that further puts the operation of more Minnesota hospitals into the hands of fewer corporations,” said Walt Frederickson, RN, MNA Executive Director. 
… Read more about: Press Release-Minnesota Nurses Welcome Swanson’s Inquiry into Hospital Merger  »

NOTES ON NURSING

RN Grad Student:  “The $4450 Urgent Care Visit     “This was one patient on one day in one healthcare facility incurring every form of systemic waste Fineberg puts forth in his article and is also illustrated by Stephen Brill’s lengthy account of overcharging, particularly those who are uninsured or underinsured.”

HEALTH CARE

Fairview-Sanford Merger Talks Bring Scrutiny   Fairview Health Services, the Twin Cities’ second-largest hospital and clinic group, is weighing a merger with South Dakota-based Sanford Health in negotiations that have triggered concerns on the part of Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson. 
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, March 27, 2013: AG Swanson sets public hearings on Fairview-Sanford merger  »

NOTES ON NURSING

Study Says NICUs Need Nurses   A surprising number of the nation’s neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) have too few nurses, a new study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) has found.

HEALTH CARE

It’s Come to This – A Lottery for Health Care Coverage    Tennessee residents who have high medical bills but would not normally qualify for Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor, can call a state phone line and request an application. But the window is tight — the line shuts down after 2,500 calls, typically within an hour — and the demand is so high that it is difficult to get through.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, March 25, 2013: NICU nurses needed; Tennessee’s HC lottery  »

Standards of Care Update

Last Friday, MNA, in consultation with our legislative allies, revised the Standards of Care Act to shift the focus of the bill to collect Minnesota-specific data on issues of nurse staffing transparency as it relates to patient outcomes.  We continue to strongly believe that every patient in the state deserves a minimum number of Registered Nurses and that any data collected will validate the thousands of nurses in Minnesota who experience unsafe staffing on a daily basis.

We learned that legislators had too many questions about staffing, and not enough hard data specific to Minnesota hospitals. So we shifted our focus to a framework that would improve transparency by requiring hospitals to report their staffing on a quarterly basis, and tie it to data on nursing-sensitive health outcomes like falls, infections and pressure ulcers.
… Read more about: MNA Legislative Update March 22, 2013  »

Media Advisory from AFL-CIO

Happening in Minneapolis and Duluth on March 24

WHAT: Concerned citizens of Minnesota will rally on March 24 to protect Saturday mail delivery and demand that Congress deliver a better plan to strengthen the Postal Service for the future. Two rallies will take place in Minnesota.  One rally will take place at Minneapolis Main Post Office on Sunday, 3/24/13 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm at the intersection of 1st Street S and Marquette.  Another rally will be held at the corner of Lake Avenue and Superior Street in Duluth on Sunday, 3/24/13 from noon to 1:00 pm. 
… Read more about: Rallies to Protect Saturday Mail Delivery and Strengthen the Postal Service  »

NOTES ON NURSING

Healing the Hospital Hierarchy   Most people in health care understand and accept the need for clinical hierarchies. The problem is that we aren’t usually prepared for them; nor are we given protocols for resolving the inevitable tensions that arise over appropriate care.

LABOR UPDATE

Income Inequality Shapes MN Tax Debate   Even in middle-class, middle-American Minnesota, income inequality is rising. It’s not a new phenomenon.

HEALTH CARE

New Database Reveals Thousands of Hospital Violation Reports    Hospitals make mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes. A patient may get the wrong medication or even undergo surgery intended for another person.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, March 20, 2013: Hospital hierarchy; Error reporting  »

Last Friday, MNA, in consultation with our legislative allies, agreed to amend the Standards of Care Act to create a procedure which will provide Minnesota-specific data on issues of nurse staffing transparency as it relates to patient outcomes.  We agreed to language in the House with an understanding that we would work on adding more detail with respect to reporting requirements.

We learned that legislators had too many questions about the staffing situation, and not enough hard data specific to Minnesota hospitals. So we shifted our focus to a framework that would improve transparency by requiring hospitals to report their staffing on a quarterly basis.
… Read more about: Standards of Care Act Update  »