Electrophysiologist Physician

Nurses demand immediate reinstatement of colleagues unlawfully suspended by Prime Healthcare for speaking up for patients at two of its Chicago hospitals. National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United September 02, 2026 Prime RNs and health care workers also set to strike on Sept. 3 for safe staffing at four hospitals in three states. In gross violation of national labor laws, Prime Healthcare over the past week has retaliated against registered nurses for speaking up and fighting for their patients at two of its Chicago-area hospitals, suspending six nurses at Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields, Ill. and one nurse at Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill., announced National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), the largest union of registered nurses in the nation. Nurses are demanding the immediate reinstatement of their colleagues. The nurses were legally joining in on union activities to have a stronger voice in patient care. Workers' rights to participate in activities to form a union are federally protected under the National Labor Relations Act. "Given the conditions that led nurses to organize our union at Olympia Fields, like short staffing, lack of supplies, nurses' concerns not being acknowledged, it is particularly egregious of Prime to illegally discipline nurses in retaliation for speaking up for our patients and engaging in legally protected activities," said Jen Peterson, RN in the outpatient surgery unit. "By disciplining these patient advocates, Prime is sending a message to the community that their concerns are not valid." Nurses, who seek to unionize with NNOC, will hold a protest at Olympia Fields on Sept. 3 against Prime's union busting. Also, nurses at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, will hold a march in the boss at their hospital in solidarity with Olympia Fields nurses. RNs at Olympia Fields and Saint Francis and another Prime facility, Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, filed petitions on Aug. 24 with the National Labor Relations Board to hold union elections to join NNOC. Prime has a track record of union busting and retaliating against organizing RN leaders. The corporation fired six nurses this spring at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago, Ill. for speaking up and fighting for their patients and earlier this year, two nurses at Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nev. for similar reasons. The Chicago nurses responded by striking and then overwhelmingly voting by 96 percent to unionize just days later. The suspensions are just one aspect of Prime's shoddy treatment of its workers. Some 2,200 nurses and health care workers at four Prime hospitals in three states - West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, Calif.; Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nev.; Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago, Ill.; and nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, Calif. - are striking the system for one day on Sept. 3 over the administration's refusal to address during contract negotiations their deep concerns about patient care and safe staffing. The four strikes follow nearly unanimous strike authorization votes. The nurses and health care workers gave at least 10 days of advance notice to the hospital to allow for alternative plans to be made for patient care. Nurses and health care workers at the California and Nevada hospitals have been working without a contract since last year, making recruitment and retention difficult and directly hurting patient care. Employees are demanding that management invest in nursing and health care staff and agree to a contract that provides: * Incentive for nurses and health care workers to stay at the bedside * Staffing that meets the patients' needs * RNs' right to advocate for their patients without fear of retaliation These demands echo the concerns of registered nurses at three other Prime facilities who are organizing to join NNOC. The RNs are part of a national union movement to fight for safe staffing and optimal patient care throughout the entire Prime Healthcare system. ***Nurses' schedule of events for Chicago*** Strike details Who: Registered nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital (Chicago) What: One-day strike to address patient care concerns and to protest retaliation against nurse advocates When: Thursday, Sept. 3, 7 a.m. CT to Friday, Sept. 4, 6:59 a.m. CT | Rally at 10 a.m. Where: Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital, 2233 W Division Street, Chicago, IL, 60622 Olympia Fields protest Who: Registered nurses at Olympia Fields Hospital and community members What: Action to protest suspension of six Olympia Fields RNs and one St. Francis RN When: Thursday, Sept. 3, 2 p.m. CT Where: Olympia Fields Hospital, 20201 South Crawford Ave. Olympia Fields, Ill. Central Maine march on boss Who: Registered nurses at Central Maine Medical Center What: March on the boss in solidarity with nurses who were suspended or fired at Prime hospitals When: Thursday, Sept. 3, 3 p.m. ET Where: Central Maine Medical Center, 300 Main St., Lewiston, Maine RNs at Chicago's Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital, who just unionized in June, will be striking to win a fair first contract. Since their election, management has prevented and threatened nurses on the negotiating team from discussing matters of patient care and staffing with colleagues. Nurses at Saint Mary held a one-day strike in June to protest the illegal firing of six nurses. "Nurses have become overwhelmed with the number of patients we are assigned - to the point where we cannot safely assess or attend to all of the patients' needs," said Vanessa Moreno, RN in the telemetry unit at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital. "We have been demanding meetings with the hospital attorneys on these patient care concerns, but they keep saying they are too busy or ignore us altogether." California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee represents over 1,800 nurses and health care workers at Prime facilities in California and Nevada and about 400 nurses in Illinois. CNA/NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the nation. Prime's Profiteering The conditions driving Prime nurses to take unprecedented collective action at their hospitals are part of a broader pattern of Prime negligence and cutting services despite its profits. In 2024, Prime Healthcare made an estimated $4.4 billion in revenue according to credit reports, and Prime's nonprofit system, Prime Healthcare Foundation, reported another $1.4 billion in revenue in their audited report. * Prime has a history of acquiring hospitals and then cutting services after it promised to maintain them. * After it acquired St. Mary's Hospital in Kankakee, Ill., in 2025, Prime shut down the hospital's obstetrics, gynecology, childbirth and delivery services and voluntarily gave up its Trauma Level II designation, resulting in an injunction filed by the Kankakee County State's Attorney, claiming that Prime was dishonest about keeping services open. * Prime cut services in 2025 at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Ill. and at Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, Ill., soon after acquisition, leading to a letter to Prime CEO Prem Reddy from Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin accusing the company of violating its commitments to maintain services to meet community needs. * On Sept. 1, 2026, Prime announced that it would cut obstetric services at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora and Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago and consolidate them at Saint Mary of Nazareth in Chicago and Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields. * In 2024, Prime Healthcare Foundation, which includes Saint Francis Hospital in Illinois and Central Maine Medical Center, claimed more than $78 million in debts they tried to collect from patients who qualify for charity care, according to their own policies. * Prime's nonprofit hospitals made more than $104 million in payments to firms owned by Prime CEO Prem Reddy - Prime Healthcare Services Inc., the main for-profit company owning all the for-profit hospitals, Prime Healthcare Management, and Bio-Med Services, Inc., a medical equipment and consulting company. Prime only gave $3.5 million in uncompensated charity care, roughly 0.4 percent of the foundation's expenses. National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.

Prime Healthcare suspending obstetrics unit at Joliet's Saint Joseph Medical Center. Cites declining births in Will County. September 01, 2026 at 4:24 pm CDT Expectant mothers in the fourth-largest city in Illinois soon won't have a hometown hospital to go to when it's time to have their babies. Prime Healthcare on Tuesday announced plans to suspend obstetrician services at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet and two other Illinois hospitals, Prime is suspending OB healthcare at Saint Joseph, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora and Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, effective Oct. 1. In a statement to Shaw Local, Prime Healthcare said that the closure at Saint Joseph in Joliet was triggered by a drop in demand. "In recent years, demand for inpatient OB services has dropped precipitously. Saint Joseph now averages fewer than one delivery per day and fewer than 20 deliveries per month," a company spokesman said. "Will County births have declined by more than 30% over the past 20 years, from 9,822 births in 2005 to 6,835 births in 2023," the spokesman said. Prime said it is directing pregnant patients to other hospitals in Chicago and Olympia Fields. They are also reportedly working in conjunction with Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox to transition current patients' care. "We're putting a lot of mothers at risk," Joliet City Council Member Jan Quillman said. "They have to get to the hospital quick." Quillman is a nurse who previously worked at Silver Cross Hospital. "Shame on them for putting our residents at risk after all these years of being in Joliet," Quillman said of Prime Healthcare's decision at the longtime Joliet hospital. Quillman said she was first hearing Tuesday about the decision to end obstetrics care at Saint Joseph Medical Center. Mayor Terry D'Arcy did not immediately return a call for comment on the latest cutback at the city's only hospital. Silver Cross Hospital, located in New Lenox and near the Joliet city limits, is seeing about 10 times the number of births at its hospital than what Prime says it is seeing at Saint Joseph Medical Center. Silver Cross also has expanded its maternal care while Prime Healthcare looks to cut back in Joliet. Silver Cross averages about 258 deliveries a month, or 3,100 a year, spokeswoman Deb Robbins said. "We also have Will County's only neonatal intensive care unit featuring 24 private, single-family rooms," Robbins said in an email The unit opened in July 2022 and has provided care for more than 1,000 babies needing specialized care, she said. State Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, issued a statement about the Prime decision. "I am deeply concerned by the closure of the NICU and OB unit at St. Joe's Hospital and the impact this decision will have on the nurses who have dedicated themselves to caring for patients and families in our community," Ventura said. "Closures driven by financial considerations can have significant consequences for the communities these hospitals serve," she added. Prime said the closure could be reversed if demand increases and called the choice a "strategic decision," and suggested it is pivoting resources to focus on more needed services. "By contrast [to OB services], Will County Health Department data shows that heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other chronic conditions remain important health concerns that can require advanced inpatient, procedural, and surgical services," Prime's statement said. The California-based for-profit healthcare company said research shows that "low-volume services are associated with worse outcomes, including higher complication rates, higher mortality rates, and longer patient stays. Therefore, Prime Healthcare plans to transition obstetrical services to regional Birthing Centers of Excellence at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital [in Chicago] and Olympia Fields Hospital, where experienced multidisciplinary teams and sufficient volume can support safe, high-quality care." Prime did not state whether it has seen such complications arise from the low volume in Joliet. About 26 full-time nurses and one physician will be affected by the changes at Saint Joseph, said a spokesman for Prime Healthcare, adding that "every affected position will be offered a role within the Prime Healthcare Illinois system." It is not guaranteed that these roles will be at nearby hospitals. "While I recognize that this was not a decision made lightly by the St. Joe's administration, it is critical that the hospital provide nurses with the training, resources, and support they need to make a successful transition to another unit, should they choose to do so," Ventura said. "This moment underscores the importance of continuing the broader conversation about universal health care and ensuring that every person has equitable access to high-quality care, regardless of their circumstances," she said. Prime Healthcare announced it was acquiring the Joliet hospital located at 333 Madison St., along with numerous other hospitals owned by Ascension throughout Illinois in 2024. Prime officially took over ownership of these Illinois hospitals in March 2025. Jessie has been reporting in Chicago and south suburban Will and Cook counties since 2011. Bob Okon covers local government for The Herald-News News editor for The Herald-News. More than 30 years as a journalist in community news in Will County and the greater Chicago region.