When St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital was acquired by Prime Healthcare in March 2025, nurse Karlie Thorn said she noticed conditions in the emergency department changed for the worse almost immediately.
A disproportionate number of inexperienced nurses, cheaper supplies and staffing shortages were among the concerning conditions Thorn and several other nurses allege, alarming them enough to prompt them to consider forming a union.
As staffers launched an effort to hold an election to unionize with National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United last month, at least six nurses were fired in what the union calls a “troubling pattern of going after experienced nurses who are advocating for their patients and coworkers.”
“I think it sent a message to the nurses in our community that we’re expendable, and when we speak up for each other, they’ll get rid of us with no just cause,” said Thorn, one of the fired nurses. “We want an election that’s fair and without interference from Prime, and we want our nurses back.”
“As nurses, we take care of everyone all day,” added Thorn, an emergency department nurse for the last four years. “We deserve to be taken care of as well.”
Registered nurses at St. Mary’s plan to hold a one-day strike on June 11 to protest what they is retaliation for speaking out about unsafe conditions, calling it a strike for “patient safety and an end to union busting.” The fired nurses are also petitioning to get their jobs back.
In a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, a St. Mary’s spokesperson said: “We have not and will not retaliate against employees for exercising their rights and have consistently applied long-standing hospital policies that protect safety and patient care.”
“Saint Mary’s of Nazareth Hospital respects the right of nurses to make their own decisions regarding union representation and to engage in lawful protected activity,” the statement said. St. Mary’s added that “comprehensive plans” were in place to ensure operations are uninterrupted during the one-day strike.
Since Prime acquired St. Mary’s, along with seven other area hospitals, nurses at the Ukrainian Village hospital say they have felt overworked, fearful of keeping their jobs and more concerned about their safety and that of their patients.
“We have always had staffing issues in the ER, but they have gotten worse since Prime took over,” Thorn said. “It’s just not safe for us to have 25 people in the waiting room and each nurse already has four to five patients.”
Patient ratios for emergency room nurses are typically 1:5, Thorn said, though more recently the ratio has been seven patients for every nurse — because staff members left over concerns about hospital conditions, or because they were fired.
Jesus Hernandez, a behavioral health nurse for the seven years before he was fired, said his unit has lost monitors, making it more difficult to care for patients quickly and leaving patients at risk of harming each other or staff members who are responding to a crisis.
“[The monitors] are kind of our eyes and ears on the behavioral health floor to make sure the patients and staff are safe,” Hernandez said.
Some older patients are more likely to fall, while others without a safety attendant have impulses that could lead to physical aggression, he said.
Amiee Bae worked for more than seven years in St. Mary’s acute male psychiatric unit before being fired — because, she said, she spoke out about poor conditions in her unit.
Bae said the changes after Prime took over were small at first. Things like lower-quailty gloves, patient socks and towels gave way to bigger changes, Bae said, including the loss of addiction medication that in some instances was lifesaving for patients in the hospital’s six psychiatric units.
“Alcohol withdrawal can kill somebody if you’re not treating them properly,” Bae said. “They can go into severe pain and distress.”
Though Bae has been a vocal critic of the changes she’s seen since Prime took over, she said she’s still willing to work with the California-based healthcare company because of her passion for nursing. She hopes the strike leads to the fired nurses getting reinstated.
“I gave 200% of my soul, my physical capacity to St. Mary’s for seven years,” Bae said. “I’m still willing to work with Prime because I love my hospital. I love who I serve.”
