Nurses Unveil Billboard Campaign in Bid to Save St. Luke's Hospital

Landmark Hospital on Sutter’s Chopping Block

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Latest to Go

As community, public health, and political leaders continue their efforts to force Sutter Health to keep St. Luke’s Hospital open as an acute-care facility, RNs from the California Nurses Association today announce a new billboard advertising campaign to draw public attention to the efforts.  The billboard is prominently placed at Valencia and Cesar Chavez Streets near St. Luke’s Hospital and will run through early spring.

Sutter has refused to commit to keeping the hospital open past 2010, and continues to cut the units in operation there, with the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit the most recent to be shut.  The NICU’s February 13 closure was marked by a candlelight vigil led by community mothers and children directly impacted by its loss.

“The billboard will draw attention to three of the patients who are the reason we need to keep St. Luke’s Hospital open,” said Jane Sandoval, an RN at the facility.  “Thousands of people South of Market rely on St. Luke’s, and it is an indispensable part of the community fabric.  We simply cannot abandon these people.”