Community deserves more from SRMC

SRMC has misused our tax dollars and is failing us. It provides sub-standard care and refuses to listen to the healthcare professionals who know what we need. We deserve better. We are paying for better.

Ten years ago, Rio Rancho rallied for a hospital that would put us first. But SRMC received a one-star rating from Medicare and a D grade from Leapfrog. Nurses are dealing with overwhelming patient loads, workplace violence, and subpar pay, which has led to a dangerous staffing shortage. They won’t pay our nurses a competitive wage but will pay for the most expensive union-busting law firm in the state and front the expenses to cover traveling nurses—Another way to avoid bargaining with the healthcare workers who call Rio Rancho home.

SRMC seems to have forgotten that healthcare professionals’ working conditions are our loved ones’ healing conditions.

If SRMC genuinely believed hospitals are a place for healing, they would invest in its staff. They would seek the input of bedside health professionals and give them the support they need to deliver the highest quality care. They would work on retaining staff, making sure nurses have a manageable workload, and, at the very least, making sure all staff are safe at work. This is not too much to ask for; it is their responsibility.

SRMC owes it to those of us who showed up ten years ago to fight for a hospital and those of us in the community now to show up at the table and bargain with our healthcare professionals.

Our well-being is worth it.

Adrienne Engehouse, Corrales; Jennifer Gaffrey, Los Alamos; George Wilson, Rio Rancho; Deborah Barnum, Rio Rancho; John Barnum, Rio Rancho; Vicki Gottlieb, Placitas; Claude King, Rio Rancho; Maria Gomez, Rio Rancho; Karen Gondeinger, Rio Rancho; Elaine Buttermore, Rio Rancho; Mary Morse, Bernalillo; Deborah Dapson, Rio Rancho; Steven Dapson, Rio Rancho; Katherine Perez, Rio Rancho; Christopher Perez, Rio Rancho; June Parsons, Rio Rancho; Madigan Ray, Rio Rancho