Nurses Call on Sutter to Keep Open Thunder Road Teen Treatment Center

RN members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United will join with community members Monday, April 13 for a press conference outside the Thunder Road Adolescent Treatment Center to call on Sutter to commit the necessary resources to maintain the facility, the only one of its kind in the East Bay.

The 9-member board of Thunder Road is expected to vote Monday on whether to continue operation of the facility, which San Francisco Chronicle columnist Chip Johnson recently noted offers residential housing for around 350 troubled teens, aged 13-19, a year.

The center provides a variety of drug and alcohol rehabilitation and mental health and other medical services for the teens, many of them referred to the center through the criminal justice system or various social service agencies.

Yet Sutter, which provides subsidies for the center through its Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and holds four of the nine seats, is reportedly anxious to shut the facility. Even with some news reports that Sutter was giving county officials additional time to find other operators of the facility, as of late last week, Sutter was reportedly discussing severance with Thunder Road staff and demanding a gag order on the staff from talking about Sutter’s plans.

The excuse is that Thunder Road loses money – even though Sutter has racked up some $3.5 billion in profits the past five years and is able to count its contributions to Thunder Road as a “community benefit” it is required to provide to maintain its non-profit status. In 2014, Sutter’s income from hospitals, care centers, and other services was $419 million, CEO Pat Fry recently announced.

“Thunder Road is a vital community asset. Closing the center now would slam the door on hundreds of young people who need the critical services it provides and should not be thrown out on the street,” said CNA Co-president Deborah Burger, RN.

“Sutter’s haste to cut the lifeline for this center symbolizes its focus on profitable services, not on ones that fill a community and public need. Thunder Road must be kept open,” Burger said.

What: Press Conference with RNs, community allies
When: Monday, April 13, 11:00 a.m.
Where: Thunder Road Adolescent Treatment Center, 390 40th St., Oakland

California Nurses Association Press Release, 4/9/15
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/entry/nurses-call-on-sutter-to-keep-open-thunder-road-teen-treatment-center/

National Nurses United
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/