Ontario, Calif., Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prime Healthcare achieved another significant milestone toward preserving St. Francis Medical Center by reaching initial three-year labor agreements with SEIU-UHW and UNAC, unions representing nurses and other professionals at the medical center. The final agreements, which were ratified overwhelmingly today by a vote of union members, preserve wages while providing generous health benefits and job security.
“We recognize and thank the bargaining teams for working together to reach fair and equitable agreements, and we are pleased to have the unions’ support as we approach sale completion,” said Rich Martwick, Assistant General Counsel at Prime Healthcare. “St. Francis’s dedicated nurses and staff members have worked extraordinarily hard to serve South Los Angeles, and these agreements reflect our shared mission of providing quality healthcare to the community. We look forward to collaborating with the unions and all hospital staff to ensure a successful future for St. Francis.”
St. Francis Medical Center, located in Southeast Los Angeles, is a 384-bed acute care hospital with one of the largest and busiest emergency and Level II trauma centers in Los Angeles County, treating more than 80,000 emergency patients and 2,200 trauma injuries a year.
More than 85% of St. Francis employees are members of a union. These employees represent various clinical and non-clinical departments including nursing, admission, clinical laboratory, dietary, emergency, housekeeping, labor and delivery, neonatal services, surgery services, nuclear medicine, pharmacy, and more. Reaching agreements with the key unions positions the hospital to flourish under Prime’s leadership, after years of financial uncertainty.
In early April, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) for the sale of St. Francis to Prime. Prime is acquiring St. Francis for a net consideration of over $350 million, including more than $250 million in cash. In addition, Prime has committed to invest $47 million in capital improvements. Prime has already begun executing on its commitment to capital investments during the transition by installing best-in-class technology.
Prime also committed to meeting and exceeding mandates for patient access and services set by the Attorney General of California, who conditionally approved the sale in July, stating that the sale to Prime “protect(s) access to care for the Los Angeles communities served by St. Francis.” Those mandates include maintaining all essential care, trauma care, charity care and community benefit programs while continuing St. Francis’s 75-year mission of service. Prime plans to expand service lines based on community needs.
The sale requires final approval by U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, which is expected shortly.
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About Prime Healthcare
Prime is one of the nation’s leading health systems with 45 hospitals in 14 states. Prime serves over 600 communities, employs 35,000 staff and provides 2.6 million patient visits annually. In California alone, Prime operates 15 hospitals, employs more than 10,000 people, and serves tens of thousands of patients annually. Prime is nationally recognized for award-winning quality care and has been named a Top 10 and Top 15 Health System by IBM Watson Health. Its hospitals have also been named among the nation’s best as ”100 Top hospitals” 53 times and have received more Patient Safety Excellence Awards from Healthgrades than any other health system in the past five years. For more information visit www.primehealthcare.com