CNA Presents New Data on Sutter's Medical...( St. Luke's Closure to Have Dispro...),Health

St. Luke's Closure to Have Disproportionate Impact On Latinos, Other

Medically Underserved Groups

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Sutter Health's planned closure of St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco will have a particularly adverse impact on the city's Latino community, as evidenced by new state data released today by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee. CNA/NNOC presented the data at a San Francisco press conference opposing Sutter's plans to end all hospital services at St. Luke's by 2009.

Sutter plans to transfer much of the current in-patient hospital care to another facility across town, California Pacific Medical Center. That process gets underway as of November 11 when Sutter will close newborn intensive care and children's facilities at St. Luke's.

"Latinos and other medically underserved populations will suffer an inordinate, disproportionate, and discriminatory impact from this unnecessary closure," said Bonnie Castillo, RN, CNA/NNOC's Sutter division director. "Sutter has made it apparent that it would prefer to have a more high income patient base, and is slamming the doors on a community that desperately needs this hospital. Medical redlining should have no place in San Francisco."

A CNA/NNOC analysis of state data, from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, shows a huge disparity between the demographics of patients served by St. Luke's and CPMC.

-- 40 percent of in-patient hospital discharges at St. Luke's are Hispanic

patients -- compared to just 1 percent of CPMC discharges.

-- 54 percent of emergency room visits at St. Luke's are Hispanic or

African-American patients -- compared to just 8 percent of ER visits at

CPMC.

The state data also demonstrates a stark divergence in income levels.

-- 42 percent of ER visits at St. Luke's are billed to Medi-Cal --

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