10.09.2003

Department of Public Health Public Hearing
On DON for Lahey Clinic Hospital – Project # 4-3A58
Massachusetts Nurses Association Testimony
October 9, 2003

Testimony provided by:
Sandra Ellis, RN

Good morning. My name is Sandra Ellis. I am a staff nurse at Tenet owned Worcester Medical Center and a member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association Board of Directors.

While I concur with the testimony already provided, I would like to highlight concerns nurses and the MNA have concerning the current DON process and the state's approach to regulating service delivery and access to hospital care in our state.

As I said, I work at Worcester Medical Center, a facility with a 3 million dollar waterfall in its lobby and a shopping mall like appearance that has gobbled up three city blocks in Worcester. I am working in a city that has seen hospitals and networks compete for patients, while ambulances criss-cross my city nightly on diversion looking for open beds, with patients boarding in emergency rooms for days waiting for services. This is the new world of health care in Massachusetts.

I offer this testimony in recognition of the fact that this state has long embraced a deregulated model of health care delivery that allows for open and virtually unbridled competition among providers. From the frontline nurse's perspective, I can tell you that this system has been a failure on all counts, depriving access to care for patients and entire communities who need care, allowing large health care networks to swallow or destroy smaller community facilities and in total, created an unbalanced, inefficient and totally irrational system of health care delivery.

Take our hearing here today. We are now considering a significant expansion of Lahey Clinic's services, while we just allowed an existing 100-year old institution to die, leaving the citizens of Waltham with no access to appropriate emergency services.

And if and when you approve this service at Lahey, what will happen to surrounding community hospitals, such as Winchester Hospital, where they might find themselves losing patients and services. As you approve this service, will you find yourself at some other nearby facility at a public hearing concerning its potential closing or arguing for an increase in state funding to keep it afloat?

We believe that it makes no sense to consider each of these applications in an ad hoc fashion. We urge you to consider this and future determinations of need in the broader context of what represents rationale health care delivery for all citizens and all communities.

Thank you for your time.