Earlier today, one of our nurses spoke on her direct experience with our broken health care system at the Primary Health and Retirement Security Subcommittee for the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee field hearing hosted by Sen. Ed Markey in Boston, Massachusetts.
Hannah Drummond is a registered nurse, National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United member, and the Chief Nurse Representative at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina.
As a witness at this hearing, Hannah provided testimony on the ways corporate greed endangers patient care and health care workers, something she has direct experience with as an employee of HCA Healthcare — the largest for-profit health care system in the country.
With more than a decade of nursing experience, Hannah entered the field to heal people and provide quality care to her community. She originally joined Mission Hospital because of its reputation for excellent care, but after her entire hospital system was bought out by HCA, that quickly changed.
“At my hospital, we’ve seen firsthand how a corporate behemoth like HCA prioritizes greedy business practices that endanger patients and workers. When HCA took over Mission Hospital in 2019, nurses were worried about what it would mean for our patients. Our concerns have been validated, as HCA has had a massive and negative impact on our hospital, turning it from a beacon in our community to a cautionary tale about corporate buyouts and management.”
Hannah went on to describe a decline in the quality of medical supplies, cutting staff and short-staffing registered nurses to unsafe levels, lack of appropriate and properly fitting PPE, multiple department closures, and a lack of sterile, safe equipment for surgery.
All of this contributed to dangerous working conditions for nurses and other health care workers, and resulted in patients’ “higher risk of preventable medical errors, avoidable complications, falls and injuries, and death.”
This isn’t just happening at Hannah’s hospital: it’s taking place throughout HCA’s nationwide network as well as at other health care networks in communities across the country.
That’s because, as Hannah told Sen. Markey, “Our profit-driven health care system is broken. Nurses know that you cannot serve the interests of profits and patients at the same time. Health care should not be a business. That’s why nurses across this country support a single-payer Medicare for All system that will transform our profit-driven health care system into one that prioritizes patient care.”
Together, that’s exactly what our nurses and supporters are working toward.
We are so grateful to Hannah and all the nurses making their voices heard and fighting for health care justice.
In solidarity,
Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All
 |
 |
 |
Email us: [email protected]
This email was sent to [email protected]. You can update your information here.
Email is the most important way we stay in touch with you. To receive fewer emails, click here. If you want to unsubscribe from our mailing list, you can remove yourself here.