Don’t be fooled by their advertising. Ellis Medicine says they invest in nurses and patients, but their actions tell a different story.

Ellis Medicine Facts:

Ellis is not investing in nurses; it wants to staff fewer nurses throughout the hospital.

• While nurses are asking for Ellis to deliver on their promise of safe staffing, Ellis Medicine has proposed to have even fewer nurses to care for patients.
• Research shows that safe staffing saves lives. Outcomes are better for patients when staffing levels meet those established in California, including an increase in lives saved, shorter hospital stays, and general improvement in quality care (Health Services Research, 2010).

Ellis invests in hospital executives, not patient care.

• From 2016 to 2020, Ellis Medicine CEO Paul Milton averaged annual total compensation of $652,372.  In 2020, the worst year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Milton’s total compensation leaped from $679,072 to $765,742, a 12.7% increase. In 2021, he made a whopping $794,474 in total compensation.
• Three other Ellis Medicine execs made approximately half a million dollars in 2021. 

Ellis is not investing in our patients, our nurses, or our community.

• In 2022, Ellis Medicine paused overnight emergent care services at the Clifton Park location and abruptly closed the inpatient adolescent psychiatric unit for six months on two days’ notice. New York State’s Office of Mental Health criticized Ellis for not following the proper channels for this temporary closure.  
• Ellis Medicine has a track record of aggressive debt collection for patients who incur medical debt at their facilities, even to the point of suing their patients. Despite recent laws that limit medical debt collection, Ellis continues to be one of the worst offenders in New York State.

The St. Peter’s Health Partners Merger Could Mean More Cuts to Patient Care

• Ellis Medicine plans to merge with St. Peter’s Health Partners (SPHP), a healthcare corporation with a concerning track record of service closures, especially those that don’t bring in high revenues for the hospital. Over the past 10 years, SPHP hospitals has shown a track record of closing services after mergers:
  • In 2020, St. Peter’s Hospital closed dental services in an area with already scarce dental health providers.
  • In March 2023, Samaritan Hospital applied to decertify 20 chemical dependence rehab beds when it absorbed the new St. Mary’s campus*.

Reproductive Rights and Services at Risk

• Ellis Medicine’s Bellevue Woman’s Center may be under threat under this merger. Trinity Health, St. Peter Health’s parent company, has been the subject of a 2015 lawsuit by the ACLU for refusing emergency abortions for women who are suffering from pregnancy complications.

• In 2020, the Burdett Birth Center merged into Samaritan hospital, a partner of St. Peter’s Health. In June, they announced a plan to close the facility, which is Rensselaer County’s only maternity ward, delivers about 900 infants per year, and serves largely communities of color. Considering the already alarmingly high rates of black maternal mortality, this is an outrageous decision that ignores the healthcare needs of a vulnerable population.

• The Schenectady Coalition for Healthcare Access (SCHA), a local group of healthcare advocates, has called for an end to cuts in healthcare services and a lack of transparency in the merger agreement between Ellis Medicine and St. Peter’s Health Partners (SPHP). See the coverage in the Times-Union here: “New York reproductive care eroding amid Catholic-secular hospital mergers” 

At a time when reproductive rights are under attack all over the country, this is unacceptable.

NYSNA nurses have had enough. We are fighting for our community hospital and our patients.

Add your name to the petition to demand that Ellis Medicine invest in safe patient care, invest in nurses, and negotiate a fair contract NOW.