Jury Finds Phoenixville Hospital Nurses Negligent, Awards Family $32.8M

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Chester County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WEST CHESTER, PA — A Chester County Court jury awarded $32.8 million to a young North Coventry girl who was born with brain damage at Phoenixville Hospital, finding negligence on the part of two nurses who were attending her pregnant mother.

The verdict came late Friday after the panel of eight men and four women deliberated more than nine hours in the case of Lily Ciechoski, who suffers from spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. The jury found that the nurses had improperly failed to alert the girl’s mother’s doctor about a drastic change in the baby’s heart rate for 13 minutes during labor.

That failure and other delays in the delivery caused the baby to suffer the brain damage she now struggles with, said her attorney Jason Archinaco of the Pittsburgh law firm of Archinaco Bracken.

“I compare it to an airplane going into a nose dive for 13 minutes and no one telling the pilot,” Archinaco said in an interview Wednesday.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20140122/jury-finds-phoenixville-hospital-nurses-negligent-awards-family-328m

PMMC To Consolidate Business Office, Move 30 More Jobs Out Of Pottstown

POTTSTOWN, PA — Pottstown Memorial Medical Center has confirmed that business operations for the hospital and several others owned by Community Health Systems will be consolidated in Easton, moving 30 jobs there.

Hospital spokeswoman Debra Bennis provided the following statement after The Mercury contacted her seeking confirmation of a tip: “Providing patients with quality health care while operating an efficient organization is one of our top priorities.  To keep hospital resources focused on our patients, we are moving our business office functions to a centralized, external office in Easton.  This transition will also enhance operational efficiencies through technological advances for scheduling appointments.  All 30 affected employees are being offered a position with the central business office or another area of our hospital. We value these individuals and appreciate the professionalism they bring to our organization.”

A business office worker who contacted The Mercury, and whose name has been withheld, said the office workers were gathered into a meeting Sept. 11 during which the hospital’s CEO and CFO informed them of the change.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20130919/pmmc-to-consolidate-business-office-move-30-more-jobs-out-of-pottstown

Community Health Systems Changes Name Of Scranton Hospital

For-profit hospital corporation, Community Health Systems (CHS) has changed the name of Mercy Hospital in Scranton.  The new name is Regional Hospital of Scranton.  The other two Mercy locations will be called Tyler Memorial Hospital (Tunkhannock) and Special Care Hospital (Nanticoke).  Mercy Health Partners was a private, Catholic-based hospital system that operated in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton metropolitan area.

CHS also owns Wilkes-Barre General, making it the dominant health care provider in NEPA.

CHS owns Pottstown Memorial Medical Center and Phoenixville Hospital in the western Philadelphia suburbs.

Community Health Systems Buys Up Three More Hospitals In Northeast Pennsylvania

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As residents of Pottstown and Phoenixville know first hand, things change when Community Health Systems (CHS) buys your local hospital.  CHS owns Pottstown Memorial Medical Center and Phoenixville Hospital.

CHS is continuing to expand their presence in Pennsylvania with the purchase of three hospitals in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Metropolitan Area.  CHS, who already owns Wyoming Valley Health Care System since 2009, has entered into an agreement with Mercy Health Partners to purchase Mercy Hospital in Scranton, Mercy Tyler Hospital in Tunkhannock and Mercy Special Care Hospital in Nanticoke.  Wilkes-Barre General Hospital is part of Wyoming Valley Health Care System and already owned by CHS.

The standard CHS rhetoric has followed: hire all employees in good standing at the time of the sale (same position, pay and seniority), CHS promised to invest $68 million in the first five years, set up a community foundation and donate $2 million, maintain the status quo for five years and treat employees with dignity and respect.

All I can say is, based on what happened in Pottstown, things will change.  We narrowly averted a strike because employees were disgruntled, claimed to be overworked and salary/benefits changes were proposed.  CHS does invest in hospital infrastructure, equipment and recruit physicians as promised.

Wyoming Valley Heath Care System in Luzerne County’s largest employer.   http://www.wvhcs.org/About/Pages/About%20Us.aspx

PMMC Strike A No Go

CHS finally realized that people in Pottstown aren’t completely without sense and made a reasonable offer to SEIU members.  The offer was overwhelmingly accepted, thereby avoiding a planned three day work stoppage in protest of unfair labor practices by Community Health Services of Brentwood, TN.

Glad this has been put to bed.  The contact is for five years so let’s hope they don’t try and pull the crap again.  This is a union town and people weren’t born yesterday.  You can’t pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.  These tactics are CHS’s modis operandi.

Very shady people.  Maybe someday we can get their hooks out of our hospital and our town!

Candlelight Vigil Held Tonight At St. John’s UCC Pottstown For Union Workers

The long drawn out union negotiations at PMMC are wearing down the hard working staff.  A candlelight vigil was held at St. John’s United Church of Christ in Pottstown this afternoon at 4 pm.  Hospital workers, union representatives, Pottstown Mayor Sharon Thomas and the press gathered to pray for a settlement and support each other during this difficult time.

Community Health Services of Brentwood, TN bought PMMC a few years ago and has transformed our caring community hospital into a “profit center”.  CHS has failed to show up at three of the last four bargaining sessions.  The contact has been extended twice already so the union voted overwhelming to go on a three day strike in December to protest unfair labor practices by CHS. 

While most of the country is in a recession, CHS is making record breaking profits and for the 3rd Quarter of 2009, their profits increased a whopping 13%.  CHS is trying to take away worker pensions and replace them with a 401K and has not made any indication of what, if any, matching contributions would be.  Also, CHS proposes to drastically increase employee health care contributions.  In the case of part time employees their out of pocket contributions would increase 400%!

Many workers spoke as well as union leaders.  A letter from US Senator Bob Casey (D) was read showing his support for the union and the hard working PMMC employees.  Two nurses from the Wyoming Valley (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area) came in support of hospital workers.  They briefly spoke saying their hospital was recently purchased by CHS and they are having similar difficulty in negotiating with CHS.  They wanted to show their solidarity to the workers in Pottstown.

Channel 6 was also there and interviewed several key people.

The attached pictures hopefully put a human face on the struggle to get fair and equitable treatment for our hospital workers.  These are Pottstown area people who are trying to get a fair contract from a corporate giant who evidently cares little for the Pottstown community.

Rev. Karen Creasy, Pastor of St. John’s UCC lead the service which included a Litany for Solidarity and candle lighting.  Participants prayed that God would loosen the hard heartedness of those at CHS and PMMC.

There are two more bargaining sessions before the strike deadline.  November 24th and November 30th.

Pottstown Memorial Medical Center Employees To Hold Rally On Wednesday – 4 PM At Sunnybrook

I have been asked to cover a union rally Wednesday at Sunnybrook.  PMMC employees are working under an expired but extended contract.  Pottstown Memorial Medical Center is Pottstown’s largest employer! 

The rally will be held at Sunnybrook – 4 PM this Wednesday.  I have no details if the rally is being held inside or outside but I was told by a reliable source that it is being held.  I intend to cover this event and report back via the Pottstown Herald and my blog. 

Stay tuned for further details!