Save St. Luke's Hospital

News Reports

Online petition Breaking News Blog Claims & Rebuttals Help us! History Hopes for St. Luke's News reports Your Stories Blog Why we care

 

website tracking

 

Home
Archive
Contents
Feedback
Search
Send a Story
About Us


Press Releases

These are the press releases others have issued and news reports that appeared during the last year. You may want to search for topics by keyword.


Recent Media Coverage of the fight to Save St. Luke's

  • St. Luke’s Hast Thou Forgotten thy Mission?
    By Jonathan Farrell, Mar 18, 2008  The Mission Dispatch

    Sit-ins and candlelight vigils this past February got the attention of the SF Chronicle as it brought into focus the critical fact that St. Luke’s one of the city’s oldest and most vital hospitals faces a possible shut-down as a Blue Ribbon Committee gathers to determine its fate on March 20.

    Kevin McCormack Media Rep for California Pacific Medical Center one of the two corporate entities in control of St. Luke’s, sees the forming of a committee as a positive step.

    McCormack was enthusiastic when he talked to the Mission Dispatch about the forming of a Blue Ribbon Committee as he admitted he was biased about the idea.

    "I think having a committee is a great idea. It brings together all the experts that have lots of credibility. Their experience and knowledge will have a much deeper and wider scope of understanding."

    And with that, I am hoping they working all together as a committee will help turn St. Luke's around giving it the direction and help it needs," said McCormack

    Currently, there are over 20 people who have agreed to participate. It reads like a “who’s who” of the medical and business community; including some non-profits like The SF Foundation. Described as leaders in their given fields of expertise/experience. The list continues to grow until the series of meetings officially convene.

    Yet, activists and community leaders like Jane Martin of the Bernal Heights Community Center have reservations. “CPMC & Sutter Health has not been fully disclosing exactly what their plans are,” she said. This is why we have reservations about the Blue Ribbon Committee,” said Martin.

    Some fear that the committee will have more participants aligning with CPMC/Sutter than it will on the side of St. Luke’s. With many broad and sweeping points of view on the committee, would the needs of patients be swept way?

    The 138-year-old St. Luke’s serves a significant portion of the city’s population. Yet it is situated in the Mission, Bernal Heights and surrounding areas. These parts of the city consist of working class families, immigrants and low-income people.

    Activists and community leaders believe that CPMC/Sutter wants to close it down because it is not economically stable. Basically said, it costs money and does not have the financial return CPMC/Sutter expects.

    “Most of the patients are MediCal, MediCare or simply uninsured,” said Dr. Benita Ann Palmer, MD who feels very connected to St. Luke’s. “The doctors and staff here are committed, they know that if they work here, they are not out to make money but to serve the community, especially the under-served,” she said.

    Which brings to light the question, what is St. Luke’s losing money on? Exactly, what costs are causing a concern for CPMC/Sutter? St. Luke’s is a non-profit hospital originally founded by the Episcopalian Diocese of SF in 1871. Its mission is to serve the poor. MORE
     
  • California Pacific acquires lease on Folsom Street office building, San Francisco's largest hospital has signed one of the city's biggest office deals in the last 12 months as it continues to shuffle real estate holdings to comply with state seismic requirements.

    California Pacific Medical Center agreed to occupy 171,000 square feet at 633 Folsom St. - all seven floors, located between Second and Hawthorne streets - according to the landlord, Swig Co. of San Francisco. The terms of the 10-year deal weren't disclosed. The asking rate for the building was about $45 per square foot, suggesting a potential value of nearly $77 million.

    Spokesman Kevin McCormack confirmed that the Sutter Health affiliate signed the lease and said the move could come as soon as March. He wasn't sure how many workers or which departments would occupy the space, other than marketing and communications. About 600 employees could fit in the building, based on industry standards.
     

  • Sutter Roseville Drops Medi-Cal Program, News 10, Dec. 5, 2007:Sutter Roseville has officially dumped its contract to treat Medi-Cal patients for in-patient services, becoming the only large regional hospital to make the move.

    "The State of California only paid Sutter Roseville less than half what it costs to treat patients. We just can't continue to do that," said hospital spokeswoman Robin Montgomery, who confirmed the contract ended December 2. "Equipment, supplies, salaries, those costs continue to climb. It's really important for us to cover expenses."

    Sutter Roseville currently has 10 Medi-Cal patients hospitalized. Montgomery said their treatment will continue until their scheduled release.

    The hospital will also continue to treat Medi-Cal patients who need only outpatient services, such as lab work or physical therapy. In an emergency, Medi-Cal patients will also continue to be accepted, Montgomery said. "We encourage anyone who needs emergency treatment to come here if it's the closest hospital," Montgomery said.

    "If they go in for emergencies, once they're stabilized, they'll be transported to another hospital," said State Health Care Services spokesman Tony Cava. He said in Kern County, San Joaquin Community Hospital is also ending its contract, effective Saturday.

  • St. Luke’s Needs Intensive Care  - Noe Valley Voice, December 2007
     

  • Medical staff criticize St. Luke's plan; Doctors, nurses call hospital proposal reduction in service,

    Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer

    Wednesday, December 5, 2007
     

  • As Medical Costs Soar, The Insured Face Huge Tab, Background article at Wall Street Journal.

     

  • Save St. Luke's! Landmark hospital needs city's help: a column from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. 
     

  • St. Luke's Hospital owner puts off plan to cut service, San Francisco Chronicle: California Pacific Medical Center officials announced a delay Thursday in plans to end pediatric and infant intensive care service at St. Luke's Hospital and came under withering criticism over a longer-term strategy to downgrade the Mission District hospital to an outpatient clinic. At a hearing before a Board of Supervisors committee, hospital executives also acknowledged failing to comply with a city law that requires private hospitals and clinics to give city public health officials 90 days' notice before ending services when they announced a planned Nov. 16 closure of the pediatric services and the neonatal ICU. A new date for the closure hasn't been set.
     

  • Cutting care, San Francisco Bay Guardian, CAConfirming endless speculation about the future of St. Luke's Hospital, executives from its parent company, Sutter Health, have announced that it will be shutting down yet more services, ultimately leaving little more than a shell behind by 2009. Sutter told reporters Oct. 19 that it would cease all in-patient care at the beleaguered Mission District hospital within two years and maintain only outpatient services and a drop-in emergency center. In "Sutter Bleeds St. Lukes" (9/19/07) the Guardian reported that treatment for infants, physical therapy, and longer-term specialized semiacute care were all being targeted for cuts by Sutter. Combined with the earlier axing of psychiatric services and other forms of care, the latest news amounts to a slow death for St. Luke's.
     

  • CNA Presents New Data on Sutter's Medical Redlining, www.earthtimes.org
     
  • See the Oct. 25, 2007 Hearing before the Neighborhood Services Committee of the Board of Supervisors (titled BOS City Operations and Neighborhood Services) . This video is provided by SFGTV, which provides an archive of selected meetings that have occurred during the past year. Video on Demand lets you watch these programs at your convenience. To view meetings you will need Windows Media Player. (See System Requirements)
     

  • Cal Pacific's new diagnosis, Bizjournals.com, NC: California Pacific Medical Center, chastened by what it sees as politically motivated delays to $2.4 billion in San Francisco hospital replacement and expansion projects, is proposing a comprehensive overhaul of its system, balancing controversial moves with sweeteners in a bid to gain city support.  Martin Brotman, M.D., the hospital's longtime CEO, laid out in an exclusive interview a new CPMC master plan designed to mollify critics and alter the city's health-care topography. Specifically, it would:

    • Turn both St. Luke's Hospital and California Pacific's main Pacific Heights campus into outpatient "hubs," while augmenting its Davies campus.
    • Build several community-care clinics, primarily south of Market Street, and contribute $20 million annually "to continue the mission of St. Luke's."
    • Use its California campus in the Richmond District as its sole labor and delivery site, moving about 1,000 deliveries per year that now occur at St. Luke's.
    • Include in its new $1.7 billion Cathedral Hill facility a "much enlarged emergency department" and advanced medical-surgical and women's and children's services.
    • Consider giving the city part of the St. Luke's site as a possible new campus for city-owned San Francisco General Hospital.

    Converting St. Luke's, one of the city's main safety-net hospitals for poor patients, to an outpatient center is political dynamite in San Francisco. CPMC hopes the other elements of the overall plan will be enough to help it gain favor.
     

  • St. Luke's Hospital's future remains uncertain, Fog City Journal:  Supervisors Michaela Alioto-Pier, Sophie Maxwell, Carmen Chu, and Tom Ammiano listened to three and a half hours of testimony Thursday during a Board of Supervisors hearing concerning California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and its plan future to cut services at St. Luke's Hospital.
     

  • Bay Area nurses: "Sutter Health's not a good neighbor hospital," Fog City Journal: Bay Area nurses held a press conference Wednesday outside of St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco to address plans by Sutter Health to cut patient care services. The nurses are members of the California Nurses Association (CNA). The nurses allege Sutter Health and its' affiliate organization, California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC), want to eliminate in-patient emergency and acute care services at St. Luke's, and other Sutter Health hospitals. Plans for a two-day strike scheduled on Oct. 10th and 11th was announced at the press conference. Photo(s) by John Han
     
  • Radical plan to stanch St. Luke's Hospital hemorrhaging, San Francisco Chronicle: St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco's Mission District will no longer be an acute-care facility after 2009, but become an outpatient "hub," providing emergency care and services that don't require a hospital stay, according to a plan announced Friday by California Pacific Medical Center. Downgrading St. Luke's to an ambulatory care center is part of a $2.4 billion master plan by Cal Pacific, the city's largest private nonprofit hospital, which includes a $1.7 billion proposal to build a 425-bed hospital on the site of the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Van Ness Avenue at Geary Boulevard.
     

  • Critics Raise Concerns over St. Luke's Plan, KCBS: SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KCBS) - San Francisco's St. Luke's Hospital presents its plan today to downgrade the facility to non-critical care. Opponents of that proposal are expected to make a strong showing at that meeting..

  • Community groups fear loss of critical hospital services, Fog City Journal:  Members of the Bay Area Organizing Committee (BAOC) convened last night with San Francisco elected officials to push equal health care access for all city residents. The meeting at St Mary's Cathedral and focused on needs for emergency room and acute care services at St Luke's Hospital, which is now a California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) owned by Sutter Health. Located in the southeast region of San Francisco, St Luke's has long provided charitable hospital services to a predominately low income African American and Latino community. But services have become less accessible for residents in the area since CPMC merged with St. Luke's."There are no profits to be made in serving the poor," said Dr. Bonita Palmer who trained at San Francisco General Hospital and served seventeen years on staff at St. Luke's Hospital. "That is why so many doctors refuse to accept MediCal and why many hospitals do not seek to attract these patients." Photo caption: Members of the Bay Area Organizing Committee (BAOC) held a meeting yesterday at St. Mary's Cathedral to address impacts of cost cutting hospital mergers
    on health care delivery service. Photos by John Han
     

  • Hospital workers fight to save jobs and services, Fog City Journal: Members of the United Healthcare Workers West (UHW) voiced loud opposition Wednesday against California Pacific Medical Center's (CPMC) plan to cut 20 hospital jobs. An informational picket was held to protest the layoffs. According to the UHW, the CPMC layoffs would include the elimination of fifteen housekeeper positions at all four hospital campuses. The plan calls for limiting cleaning services to medical office buildings. Photo Caption: UHW workers picketed California Pacific Medical Center on Wednesday
    to protest proposed layoffs and service cuts.
    Photos by John Han
     
  • Sutter bleeds St. Luke's, San Francisco Bay Guardian, CA:  Dr. Bonita Palmer has worked at the embattled St. Luke's Hospital on the southwest corner of César Chávez and Valencia for 17 years. Before a packed room of union organizers and religious leaders Sept. 12 at St. Mary's Cathedral near Japantown, she gave a brief speech about her experiences at the beloved but financially troubled hospital.

    "St. Luke's has been struggling to stay afloat for many years," Palmer told the audience. "Under managed care, reimbursements are down, the numbers of uninsured patients are up, and the growing gap between income and cost of care stresses the health of working people." Money woes at St. Luke's are no secret. Its parent company, California Pacific Medical Center, an otherwise lucrative group of San Francisco hospitals owned by Sacramento's Sutter Health, describes the losses at St. Luke's as anywhere from $20 million to $30 million annually.

    Patient advocates and unions representing St. Luke's workers have long feared closure of the hospital and its badly needed acute-care services, which thousands of residents — the city's poorest among them, living nearby in the SoMa, Mission, and Bayview–Hunters Point neighborhoods — often visit when they can't get expensive medical treatment elsewhere.

    The hospital continually faces cuts executed by the CPMC, from its downgraded neonatal nursery to the subacute unit, where, Palmer says, patients who require nonemergency but highly specialized care from professionals are being turned away. "Sutter scrapped its plan for a much-needed upgrade to our emergency room even as we continue to receive the overflow of patients from" San Francisco General Hospital, she said.

    Staffers learned most recently that outpatient physical therapy, which had already been trimmed, will be done away with completely, while the hospital's 36-bed inpatient psychiatric unit and outpatient clinic have already been closed. A woman in the audience confessed afterward that she was nearly brought to tears by Palmer's tale.

    The decisions only worsened Sutter's reputation across Northern California for dwelling on its bottom line and further enraged the United Healthcare Workers–West union, which represents thousands of Sutter workers and with which the company has regularly battled for a decade.

    St. Luke's contains one of the most active emergency rooms in the city, and aside from General Hospital a mile or so away on Potrero Avenue, it serves more patients benefiting from Medi-Cal and Sutter's version of charity care services than just about any other facility.

     

 

Home ] St. Luke’s Needs Intensive Care ] Healthcare Workers Object to Plan to Gut St. Luke's ] Health Care Alert: Sutter Plans to Close St. Luke's ]

Send mail to webmaster@savestlukes.org with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2007 Save St. Luke's
Last modified: 01/13/08