May 18th, 2007

Michael Murphy, Sharp HealthCare CEO
Sharp HealthCare
695 Spectrum Center Court
San Diego, CA 92123

Dear Mr. Murphy,

Like you, I care deeply about ensuring quality of health care for all San Diegans. So I was alarmed to read in the April 24th San Diego Union Tribune about a recent survey showing that two in five Sharp HealthCare nurses say preventable patient injuries are occurring because of short staffing. Because Sharp HealthCare is the largest health care provider in San Diego, these survey results are greatly troubling.

When the nurses and their union, United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, tried to investigate these important issues, Sharp managers thwarted their efforts. I¹ve since learned your management team has inappropriately interpreted contract language between UNAC/UHCP and Sharp HealthCare to restrict union representative access to your facilities. Sharp management and UNAC must jointly come to an agreement regarding the meaning of reasonable access . Your management team does not have the authority to unilaterally interpret the contract. I strongly advise you to restore full access to nurses and their union representatives.  

Although the restriction of access greatly concerns me, the possible motive behind it concerns me more. UNAC representatives were attempting to conduct a quality of care investigation, which were prompted by these disturbing survey results, when your management team began restricting access. As I understand it from a March 30 report on KUSI-TV, one of your Chief Nursing Officers personally removed a UNAC nurse with over 20 years of experience from one of your hospitals. In another instance, you had three security officers escort a peaceful UNAC nurse out of another one of your hospitals.

This type of behavior must stop. Instead of impeding the nurses¹ investigation, your management team should be working with the union to ensure your patients get the highest quality of care. Although I know your organization¹s mission is to provide the best Sharp experience possible, your refusal to provide full access and your recent rejection of the nurses¹ contract proposal that seeks to simply put state regulatory language on patient care into the nurses¹ contract confounds me.

Mr. Murphy, you have accepted a high level of responsibility as the Chief Executive Officer of the largest health system in San Diego. I¹m sure your goal is to provide the highest level of care possible, but your recent actions don¹t support that goal. Please restore full access to UNAC to ensure that your patients get the quality health care they deserve.


Sincerely,

Jim Mahler, President
AFT Guild, Local 1931