KERN COUNTY, Calif. (KERO) — SEIU Local 521 said Kern Medical Center workers filed a lawsuit Monday against Kern County Hospital Authority alleging violations of California open meeting and public disclosure laws.
The healthcare workers are represented by SEIU Local 521.
The lawsuit filed in California Superior Court alleges the Hospital Authority had numerous violations of the Brown Act and the California Public Records Act.
Those laws require public disclosure of how public agencies spend tax money and deliberate in public.
The lawsuit also alleges that the hospital district created Kern Medical Surgery Center LLC as a standalone entity to provide ambulatory surgeries but is also providing spa services and cosmetic surgeries.
The healthcare workers and SEIU 521 released the following statement:
“Healthcare workers like myself know very well that the Hospital Authority must do more to comply with the law and provide quality care to our patients, '' said Eva Dominguez, MRI Technologist and SEIU Local 521 Member. “We’ve provided our union with the facts that we believe point to Kern Medical’s efforts to operate above public oversight.”
“In Kern Medical’s Surgical Department, we don’t always have the equipment we rely on to do our jobs,” said Robin Heber, Operating Room Surgical Technologist at Kern Medical and SEIU 521 Member. “There have been multiple instances when our equipment isn’t available because it was sent to the Kern Medical Surgery, LLC facilities.
"Sometimes we find this out at the worst possible time while our patients are in the operating room with our staff and we either don’t have the equipment in inventory or we got it back from the surgery center without it being reconfigured to the needs of our patients.”
THE LAWSUIT CAN BE READ BELOW:
SEIU v. Kern County Hospital Complaint
