As a union, part of our job is to hold the feet of management to the fire on issues related to quality of care. But we never lose sight of the fact that we must also protect Jackson from external politics that can make that job of providing quality care much harder.
For that reason, we have been supporting JHS in its bid to protect Ryder from changes in the trauma landscape that could adversely affect its public mission to provide world-class trauma care to the entire community.
On Feb. 20, more than a dozen of our members joined Jackson management and community members at a Department of Health hearing on the rules governing how, when and where trauma centers can be allowed in a region.
Among those who testified at the hearing were trauma nurses Carla Quigley and Mary Ordóñez, 1991 president and former trauma nurse Martha Baker, trauma surgeons Patty Byers, Enrique Ginsburg and James Hutson, David Shatz, Ross Bullock, trauma anesthesiologist Albert Varon, Ryder’s medical director Nick Namias, JHS CEO Carlos Migoya, and various members of the community who spoke up to support Ryder as a jewel of the region.
There are a number of other trauma rule workshops scheduled around the state. For more information or to submit your own written testimony, click on the state’s Trauma Program site that details all the information collected to date.