FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sam Fettig
(c) 612-741-0662
sam.fettig@mnnurses.org
Lauren Nielsen
(c) 651-376-9709
lauren.nielsen@mnnurses.org
(St. Paul) – September 12, 2022 – Today, the Minnesota Nurses Association responded to the announcement that the Minnesota Department of Health has found the proposed mental health facility to be operated by M Health Fairview and Acadia Healthcare to be in the public interest. MNA has raised concerns about the planned facility, citing recent hospital closures by M Health Fairview and the for-profit model of Acadia Healthcare which is out of step with Minnesotans’ and nurses’ values.
The following is a statement from the Minnesota Nurses Association:
“Every day, nurses confront the ongoing staff shortages in our hospitals and experience firsthand the mental health crisis in our state. Nurses understand the need for additional mental healthcare beds. However, as frontline healthcare professionals, we recognize that there is a right way to go about it, and a wrong way.
“Nurses believe that healthcare in Minnesota should put patients before profits. We believe that safe patient care should be the top priority in Minnesota hospitals, not the profits of hospital executives or corporate bottom lines and results for shareholders. This is why we are deeply concerned with the decision to allow M Health Fairview to move ahead in partnership with a profit-driven corporation, Acadia Healthcare, which will have 85 percent ownership of this new venture.
“Right now, 15,000 nurses are on strike to oppose the corporatization of healthcare in Minnesota at the hands of hospital executives, as clinics and hospitals are closed, nurses are short-staffed, and patients are overcharged. The decision to approve this new for-profit hospital demonstrates clearly the need to finally put patients before profits in our healthcare system.”
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