Support the Baystate VNA nurses in Greenfield

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MASSACHUSETTS NURSE NEWSLETTER :: November/December 2007

Support the Baystate VNA nurses in Greenfield
Holding the line against a company that is putting profits before patients





			VNA nurses from Greenfield and their labor brothers and sisters at a picket earlier this year.

After a prolonged contract struggle, Baystate Health management recently announced that it is closing the Greenfield office of the Baystate Visiting Nurse and Hospice (VNAH). They also announced that there would be lay-offs at the VNA office in Springfield and at the Baystate Franklin Medical Center. According to Baystate Health officials, they are closing the VNAH in Greenfield and reducing staff at the main office in Springfield due to rising costs and deficits caused by cuts in Medicare reimbursement for home care. But Baystate is posting a record surplus for the current fiscal year! Baystate Health Systems total profits for the second quarter were $35.1 million, compared to $21.7 million for the same period in 2006. This constitutes a roughly 60 percent increase! The VNAH in Greenfield employs 55 people and provides home care to about 150 patients, and the hospice program serves between 18 to 23 patients on a daily basis. Given how well Baystate is doing financially, how can they be cutting these important services to sick and dying people in Greenfield?

Is this the Baystate Health System that cares about the community and their employees, or is this a company who clearly puts profits before patients?

Nurses! Call your legislator today and ask them to help keep Greenfield open

Call your legislators and urge them to call Trish Hannon (senior vice president for health care operations) at 413.794.5516 and Mark Tolosky (CEO of Baystate) through his executive assistant at 413.794.5890.

Keep Baystate VNA & Hospice in Greenfield open! Call your legislator!

Sen. Edward Kennedy
2400 John F. Kennedy
Federal Building
Boston, MA 02203
617.565.3170

Sen. John Kerry
Springfield Federal Building
1550 Main Street, Suite 304 Springfield, MA 01101
413.785.4610

If you live in Franklin or Hampshire County, call:

Congressman John Olver
57 Suffolk Street Suite 310
Holyoke, MA 01040
413.532.7010

If you live in Hampden County, call:

Congressman Richard Neal
1550 Main Street, Suite 309
Springfield, MA 01103
413.785.0325

If you live in Northampton, Amherst, Belchertown, Hadley, Hatfield, Pelham and South Hadley, in the county of Hampshire; and Bernardston, Buckland, Colrain, Deerfield, Erving, Gill, Greenfield, Leverett, Leyden, Montague, New Salem, Northfield, Shelburne, Shutesbury, Sunderland, Wendell and Whately, in the county of Franklin call:

Sen. Stanley Rosenberg
1 Prince Street
Northampton, MA 01060
413.584.1649

If you live in the towns of Erving, Gill, Greenfield, Orange and Warwick, all in the county of Franklin; and the town of Athol, in the county of Worcester, call:

Rep. Christopher J. Donelan
186 Walnut Hill Rd
Orange, MA 01364
978.544.2180

If you live in the towns of Easthampton, Hadley and South Hadley, all in the county of Hampshire, call:

Rep. John Scibak
P.O. Box 136 South
Hadley, MA 01075
413.539.5855

If you live in the towns of Amherst and Granby, both in the county of Hampshire, call:

Rep. Ellen Story
State House Room
147 Boston, MA 02133
617.722.2575

If you live in the towns of Conway, Deerfield, Leverett, Montague, New Salem, Shutesbury, Sunderland, Wendell and Whately, all in the county of Franklin; and precincts A and D, of the town of Belchertown, and the towns of Chesterfield, Goshen, Huntington, Pelham, Williamsburg and Worthington, all in the county of Hampshire, call:

Rep. Stephen Kulik
1 Sugarloaf Street South |
Deerfield, MA 01373
413.665.7200

If you live in the towns of Hatfield, Montgomery, Southampton and Westhampton, and the city of Northampton, all in the county of Hampshire, call:

Rep. Peter Kocot
State House Room 473F
Boston, MA 02133
617.722.2210

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