The MARIN SAFE HEALTH
CARE COALITON
     

Contact us!

(415) 454-5027
1000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., room 18,
San Anselmo, CA 94960

MAIL
a grassroots watchdog group focusing on Marin General Hospital
and the conglomerate Sutter/CHS

 

 

 
Overview
 
       Marin General Hospital was successfully and profitably operated by the District Board from 1952 until 1985. In 1985 it approved a controversial 30-year lease with Marin General Hospital Corp.

     The lease delegated to MGH Corp. the authority to manage MGH and Marin Home Care, and to provide oversight of the MGH Foundation. After a series of mergers, MGH Corp. is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sutter Healthcare, the second largest healthcare conglomerate in California.

     As a result of this lease, Sutter Healthcare's has been given free rein to make relentless cuts in the name of profit. The quality of care at Marin General has fallen considerably, while the amount of cash flowing to Sutter Healthcare's coffers keeps rising at a dramatic pace. At present, our District Board has filed suit to restore community control of our hospital.

For more information about the Marin Healthcare District
and Marin General Hospital, Click here.
  
     

 

More grisly headlines
Two more accident victims airlifted out of county
Twice more,
no neurosurgeon available at Marin General
On Friday, January 22, a 51 year old woman was struck by a car in Terra Linda, leaving her in critical need of medical attention, according to the Novato Advance. The accident once again revealed the critical weakness in Marin County's trauma care system.

The injured woman was airlifted to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek because once again, there was no neurosurgeon available in Marin.

Then, on Wednesday, January 27 The Marin Independent Journal reported that a Novato teen that shot himself had to be airlifted to Sonoma County because yet again, no neurosurgeon was available.

Both accidents occurred just as county health officials prepare to release a plan to close what we all know are gaps in the trauma care system.

Twice more it has been clearly demonstrated that the lack of a full-service, round the clock trauma center in Marin will result in dramatically lower health care. Inevitably this can only lead to further tragedies.

~ Read the articles ~
Accident victim airlifted out of county
No neurosurgeon available at Marin General
 Novato Advance, January 27, 1999

Neurosurgeon issue flares up
Shooting victim had to be airlifted to Santa Rosa
 The Marin Independent Journal, January 28,1999

 

Informal Independent Journal questionnaire
indicates Marin residents are in favor
of a trauma center
Here is a quote from a recent Marin Independent Journal article:

A majority of readers responding to an informal questionnaire published by the Independent Journal over the past several weeks said they support a 24-tour trauma Center for Marin County.

In addition, eight of the people who wrote letters in favor of a trauma center said in follow-up interviews with the Independent Journal that they would also support a new tax to pay for it. (Tax! Make sutter/MGH pay for it out of the enormous profits they are sending to their corporate masters. That money should be used for health care in Marin. the editor)

The Marin Board of Supervisors is expected in early March to consider a report on the county's emergency medical services that includes recommendations for a Level III trauma center with 24 hour neurosurgical services and a helipad.

~ Read the article ~
Public's view of trauma center, helipad
The Marin Independent Journal, Sunday, 2/14/1999

 

3 supervisors support Marin trauma center
A majority of Marin County supervisors support a Level III trauma center, but some stop short of endorsing a call for a rescue helicopter landing pad.

Supervisors Annette Rose, Hal Brown and Steve Kinsey said they favor a proposal that the county adopt a greater level of trauma-care readiness than currently exists.

~ Read the article ~
Public's view of trauma center, helipad
The Marin Independent Journal, Sunday, 2/14/1999

 

Judge finds Bradkowski's lawsuit against
MGH nurse without merit
Remember that lawsuit filed wrongly by Keith Bradkowski, MGH administrator against one of his nurses, Esther Blau?

~ Read the article ~
 Marin Independent Journal Article:

MGH official sues nurse for libel - 11/17/98
By Nancy Isles Nation
Independent Journal Reporter

Well, the judge has found the lawsuit is without merit. The lawsuit is over, but the bravery of this nurse shall not be forgotten. (I doubt Bradkowski's behavior shall be forgotten either.)

~ Read the article ~
Judge: Libel suit lacks evidence
Malice ruling puts MGH in spotlight
The Marin Independent Journal, Sunday, 2/14/1999

 

Marin Health Fund to give $500,000 in
legal aid to the district board
Back in September a little-known nonprofit organization promised $500,000 in support to the Marin Healthcare District in its fight to return the county's hospital to public control.

George Stratigos, executive director of the Marin Health Fund and a Sausalito City Council member announced the pledge at a meeting of the healthcare district board of directors at Mill Valley Town Hall.

"The district board has documented that quality of care at Marin General Hospital, and particularly emergency care, has deteriorated," Stratigos said. "To restore health care worthy of our trust, the Marin Health Fund board of directors has come to believe that returning public control of the hospital is crucial."

MGH critics get 500,000 in legal aid
By Nancy Isles Nation
Independent Journal Reporter

Visit the Marin Health Fund website!

http://www.marinhealthfund.org/

At a special meeting of the Hospital District board, the public was dramatically shown by members of the staff and board of El Camino Hospital that a "stand alone" district hospital is not only possible, but far more logical than allowing a corporation to suck up profits and reduce healthcare. read this!

 

The Marin Safe Healthcare Coalition will be happy to provide a speaker for your group.
Call (415) 454-5021

WE WON!
86,696 votes cast for candidates committed to regaining control of Marin General Hospital. 78,392 votes cast for candidates to maintain the status quo.

When it all came down, (Sometimes it DOES take a brain surgeon) Arnstein joined Sylvia Siegel, Diana Parnell, and Linda Remy on the District Board. Peter Romanowsky, a candidate independent of the slate who also wants to restore local control, got 5,500 votes, which kept Bernie Del Santo from winning and (alas!) got Suzanna Coxhead re-elected.

Now we are 4-1 on the Board. No question of the lawsuit continuing.

click here to visit our election page

Election results

Critics retain control of hospital board - 11/4/98
By Nancy Isles Nation
Independent Journal Reporter

 

The elected Marin Healthcare District board is formally urging that a trauma unit be built in Marin. Sutter made <<<$60 million>>> in 1997, up from $23 million in 1996. That is a lot of money that could be used for nurses, diapers, pharmacists.

Why does Marin need a Level II trauma center? Read this!

Read the March 98 Independent Journal article:
Hospital board wants county trauma center
Marin General calls proposal premature

The administation at MGH/Sutter Corporatrion would have you believe that Marin County cannot support a Level II trauma center. Their website even makes it sound like it would be against the law! (click here) Besides not wanting to spend money that they could keep as profit's for their "non-profit" corporation, their spokespeople state repeatedly that:

"a Level II trauma center typically serves a minimum population of 350,000 and about 350 trauma cases a year. Marin’s population is about 236,000. MGH had 54 major trauma cases in 1996."

What they are not telling you is that they plan to send you and your loved ones to a trauma center - (another Sutter affiliate) Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, a hospital with less than a minimum population of 350,000 and about 350 trauma cases a year.

Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa has applied for a Level II trauma center, and By only offering Level II trauma care in one facility, Sutter can pocket more profits.

Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa runs an advertisment in the the local Santa Rosa Press Democrat that contains the following:

"The carefully recruited surgeons of the Sutter Medical Center Emergency Surgical Team provide 24-hour on-site coverage for life threatening injury."

"When the subject is your life,
We're not big on compromise."

Sutter admits that it provides Marin with care with care care that is compromised, because it does not provide 24 hour in-house emergancy surgeons, as it does at its Santa Rosa Hospital.

Sutter has two "truths," one for Sonoma County residents and the other for you and your fellow marinites for whom, by it's own admission, provides "compromised" care.

MARIN COUNTY TRAUMA PLAN
Draft One - July 15, 1998 - For Discussion Purposes Only

(Remember that most of the people that worked on this report about trauma care in Marin are Sutter affiliated.)

 

FACT SHEET
The Marin Safe Healthcare Coalition has prepared a Fact Sheet:

"ABOUT THE MARIN HEALTHCARE DISTRICT
AND MARIN GENERAL HOSPITAL"

(Click here to read it)

PLEASE COPY THIS AND GIVE IT TO YOUR FRIENDS!

     

"Sutter’s Giant Sucking Sound"
 By Lisa Davis
Sutter Health, one of california's largest hospital empires, is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity...
Why, then, does Sutter dispense so little charity, and vacuum so much profit from the hospitals it acquires?
Lisa Davis has written a comprehensive and enlightening article about MGH Corp's parent company, Sutter Health. It was on the newstands January 21-27. Click here to read:
Sutter's Giant Sucking Sound
Or two other fine articles;

"UNHEALTHY debate"

Oh, Baby,
Does Sutter Health understaff maternity unit?



Check out their website!

 

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Associated Press - January 31, 1998
Health Care Workers Turn to Union

The Associated Press - January 29, 1998
Nurses on Strike in N. California

 

CLICK HERE TO READ THE SUTTER SCAM SHEET!

The Sutter Scam Sheet will not only tell you what's going on at Marin General, it is a watchdog periodical for all of Sutter's activities!

The Sutter Scam Sheet is published by the Health Care Workers Union, Local 250 SEIU, to update elected officials, regulators, District and Community hospitals, industry insiders, consumers, labor unions and other healthcare purchasers about their campaign to Stop the Sutter Scam.

Local 250 is headquartered in Oakland. For more information,
call 510-251-1250
or visit their website at
http://www.seiu250.org/

 

Sutter Health Corporation Destroys
Another Community Hospital:
A Doctor's Testimony
     This link leads to the text of a speech given by Dr. William Kirby, Chief of Staff of the Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital to the Auburn California Rotary Club on November 11, 1997 on the subject of Sutter Health Corporation's destruction of a community hospital.

     To quote Dr. Kirby,
     "Sutter Health represents the most malicious, two faced, duplicitous organization that I have ever dealt with. The people that work for them will look you straight in the face and lie. Nothing that they say can be trusted. They are absolutely dishonest. They are driven by POWER, GREED, PROFIT and CONTROL. They don't really give a DAMN about the quality of patient care."

To read the text of the speech in full, click here.

Visit
Sutter Health
The corporate site.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Drop them a line.
Say hello.
Tell them that we want our hospital back!

 

Click here to send e-mail to the Marin Safe Health Care Coalition.
Click here To visit the MSHCC's parent organization, the Social Justice Center of Marin.
 

 

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Hey! Where's all that stuff I saw here last month?
right here!

     

We finally have elected a District Board majority pledged to fight for the right of every Marin resident to receive the best possible care at our hospital.

We encourage you to contact the Board to show your support:

Marin Health Care District Board
1100 South Eliseo Drive
Greenbrae, Ca 94904
Tel: (415) 461-5700

Or you can email the Hospital District Board:
Click here
to send e-mail to
Diana Parnell, MD
(dermidi@aol.com)
Click here
to send e-mail to
Linda Remy, Ph.D.
(lremy@well.com)

     The District Board meets the third Tuesday evening of each month at 7:00 PM. Please come to speak out for better health care.
     You can also put pressure on Sutter/MGH Corporation. Recent revelations have affected public opinion to such an extent that even corporate management admits donations are down. Marin donors have decided they don't want to give to an institution focused on its bottom line instead of on the quality of care it provides.

Call the hospital's corporate administration at (415) 925-7100.
Tell them you won't volunteer or donate money
until they put patient care first.


Click here to send e-mail to the Marin Safe Health Care Coalition.
Click here To visit the MSHCC's parent organization, the Social Justice Center of Marin.

 

 

All opinions, mistakes and corrections are the sole responsibility of the editor.

 

The MARIN SAFE HEALTH
CARE COALITON
     

Contact us!

(415) 454-5027
1000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., room 18,
San Anselmo, CA 94960

MAIL
a grassroots watchdog group focusing on Marin General Hospital
and the conglomerate Sutter/CHS

~ This page last updated 2/24/99 ~