They say hospital chain exploiting market dominance
Catholic health care nonprofit Ascension Seton’s mission is to serve “all persons with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable.” A recent report by National Nurses United, the union that represents over 1,000 RNs at Seton, suggests Ascension is failing in that mission.
However, those numbers reflect the patients Ascension does serve; NNU’s report notes that the national average closure rate for obstetrics units was 6% from 2012 to 2021, but Ascension’s rate of closure for labor and delivery units was 21% over the same period. About a quarter of its labor and delivery units closed within the last decade, most in census tracts with higher poverty rates than the surrounding county.
Now, according to Ascension, more than 5,000 babies are born each year at Seton on 38th – around 440 babies a month, essentially the same capacity as in 2017.