Respect us. Protect us. Pay us!
HCA vs.
AMERICA
Tell the largest hospital corporation in America that it’s time to protect patients and workers.
Click above to listen to Jamelle’s story. HCA workers know that together in a union, they can speak out: it’s outrageous that HCA is rigging the rules and making millions while healthcare workers who are fighting the coronavirus pandemic every day are underpaid and undervalued. Healthcare workers demand: respect us, protect us, pay us!
Elected Officials, Regulators and Communities Must Hold HCA Accountable!
- Nurses and other hospital workers are exhausted and burned out due to understaffing at HCA hospitals. The corporation’s staffing levels lag the national average by 30%, and nearly 80% of survey respondents report short-staffing is jeopardizing patient care.
- While COVID-19 continues to fill emergency rooms, a new report finds that HCA Healthcare may be admitting patients unnecessarily, draining already depleted staffing resources.
- Data suggests that HCA’s admissions practices may have netted the corporation over $1 billion in excess Medicare payments in just five years.
American taxpayers, patients, and frontline healthcare workers deserve better.
It’s time we hold the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain accountable for engaging in practices that prioritize profits over patient care, working conditions, and responsible corporate behavior.
"Staffing ratios have long been a problem at HCA. Technicians like myself have a massive workload; it impacts our mental and physical well-being as frontline workers as well as our patients. I want to be able to give patients the best care possible, but how can I when I don’t have the proper support? It’s clear that the workers are not a priority for HCA."
- Xochitl Gonzalez, Patient Care Technician, Los Robles Regional Medical Center
"The company’s low staffing levels place enormous strain on those who work at HCA and make it challenging to provide the care our patients deserve. We deserve better."
- Jennifer Barnes, Medsurge Telemetry Nurse, West Hills Hospital & Medical Center
“There is no more demoralizing feeling than when you run yourself ragged to do as much as you can for your patients, but 12 hours later leave your shift feeling like you didn’t do enough because you’re so short staffed. Nurses are left to bear this emotional and physical burden on top of everything else now and it’s taking a devastating toll.”
- Jody Domineck, Pediatric Nurse, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center
“I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. We are all tired beyond belief. Something has to give. We need help now."
- Davina Padilla, Monitor Tech
“As a Respiratory Therapist I have seen firsthand the effects both the Delta and Omicron variant can have on the vaccinated and unvaccinated. The high infection rate of Omicron is making all of us worry about the ability to do our jobs while being significantly short-staffed. This is not sustainable.”
- Zavia Norman, Respiratory Therapist, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest for-profit hospital corporation in the country, HCA, is skimming millions in critical resources from our hospitals.
Patients, workers, and communities are mobilizing to demand that HCA stop these practices, and that patient needs be prioritized over corporate greed!
Because HCA is the largest for-profit hospital corporation in the nation, their shadow over local hospitals spreads from coast to coast. Their local hospitals frequently operate under different names, leaving local patients unsuspecting of its association with HCA.
No matter the name their local hospitals go under, across the country HCA should not be allowed to put corporate greed over patient need. While patient safety should always come first, staffing levels at HCA hospitals are 30% lower than industry standards for quality care despite HCA’s billions of dollars in profits.
HCA has sued 7,800 of their own patients in Colorado, pursuing aggressive collection tactics against low-income patients who can’t afford to pay their mile-high medical bills.
In North Carolina, doctors resigned en masse after an HCA takeover of a local hospital this February – and HCA is already eyeing more local hospitals as marks for takeover.
In Austin, respected local hospital system St. David’s HealthCare lost $250 million in resources last year as they were funneled to executives in Nashville – resources that should have gone to patient care and PPE for staff.
No matter the name they use, HCA’s pattern is the same, which is why patients and healthcare workers across the nation are mobilizing to demand HCA start putting need over greed.
Why HCA Workers Demand:
“HCA Respect Us, Protect Us, and Pay Us”:
- HCA is the largest for-profit hospital corporation in the nation, making nearly $4 Billion in profits last year alone
- Despite their profitability, tens of thousands of HCA hospital frontline workers earn poverty wages – less than $15 per hour – as they risk their lives to care for patients every day
- During the coronavirus pandemic, HCA hospitals have made headlines for having inadequate staffing, failing to provide adequate PPE, aggressive debt collection lawsuits, and siphoning millions of dollars a year in resources out of local hospital systems in crises
- HCA’s antics in hospitals across the nation have patients and workers asking – is the largest hospital corporation in the country making our local hospitals sicker?
- Since the pandemic started nearly 500,000 Americans have died while the Frist family, HCA’s founding family and largest shareholder, has doubled its wealth to over $15 billion.