Quick Take
Watsonville Community Hospital nurse Driss Hassam is calling for greater transparency in how the publicly funded hospital spends its money, citing shortages of basic supplies and delayed patient care. Hassam questions hospital priorities as more than $200 million in bonds, grants and donations have flowed through Watsonville Community Hospital in recent years. He contrasts front-line conditions with administrative spending, consulting contracts and unfulfilled promises tied to voter-approved Measure N. Hassam argues that financial decisions should be publicly scrutinized and focused on expanding clinical services and patient care.
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I have worked as a nurse at Watsonville Community Hospital for nine years. My job, which I see as an obligation, is to advocate for the patient in the bed. That is where my loyalty lies. Not with politics. Not with public relations. Not with consultants or boardrooms. With the person in front of me who is sick, scared and trusting us to care for them.
That is why I am speaking up now – despite the fear many nurses carry about retaliation for doing so.
Watsonville Community Hospital is a deeply valuable community asset. It serves people who might otherwise have nowhere to go. The nurses, respiratory therapists, aides, techs and physicians who work here – the boots-on-the-ground staff – are dedicated, skilled and compassionate. I see it every shift. This hospital matters. That is precisely why how its money is being spent deserves serious public scrutiny.
I am not an executive. I am a floor nurse. I do not claim to see the full picture. But I do see what happens when that picture doesn’t translate into basic care.
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Somewhat regularly, we run out of essential patient supplies – for days. At one point, we did not have toothbrushes or toothpaste. That is not a luxury item. That is basic dignity. I formally reported it. I filed an Assignment Despite Objection (ADO) form to voice my concern. I contacted our union about other serious concerns and never received a response.
We have had imaging equipment go down multiple times. When imaging doesn’t work, care is delayed. Diagnoses are delayed. Patients wait or get rushed elsewhere.
I have never seen those realities reflected in the glowing articles describing how well hospital leadership is doing, or how federal cuts are supposedly the root of all our problems.
Those stories don’t fully match what nurses are seeing.
What also doesn’t match is the hospital’s financial story. In less than four years, more than $200 million has flowed through this institution: $61.7 million raised by the hospital foundation from generous community members who stepped up to save us; a $25 million state grant that does not need to be repaid; low-interest seven-figure loans and lines of credit; and a $116 million voter-approved bond.
I know we are struggling with $10 million in federal cuts, but this also raises a simple, unavoidable question: Where is the money going?
The Measure N bond approved by voters was supposed to fund imaging equipment and major building upgrades – specifically expanding and modernizing services like the emergency department. Has the ER doubled in size, as promised? If not, why? Why did the hospital spend close to $500,000 on a consulting firm based in Chicago? How does that improve patient care, imaging capacity or building upgrades here in Watsonville?
Even if leaders insist that consulting fees did not come directly from bond funds, that explanation misses the point. When a hospital is asking the public for money while running at a loss, every large expenditure reflects priorities.
We are a 106-bed hospital with at least 25 managers, directors and executives. By my count, the daily administrator-to-patient ratio is better than the nurse-to-patient ratio, which often runs four or five patients per nurse. I have the list.
Nurses are expected to account for every minute, every chart entry, every supply. We answer for everything, including layers of redundant documentation.
Leadership should be held to the same standard.
At one point, the hospital ran up close to a million dollars setting up a cardiac catheterization lab. It was later abandoned. Was this a funding issue? A planning issue? A leadership issue? These are not abstract questions. These are choices with real consequences.
Most alarming of all, we recently heard suggestions that hospital management would consider closing the intensive care unit (ICU) as a cost-saving measure. Nurses rallied and management quickly distanced themself from the suggestion. The very idea directly contradicts the mission voters supported when they approved the bond. We were supposed to expand services for this community, not eliminate critical ones.
Closing clinical departments because they are “not profitable” is not health care. It is accounting without conscience.
If leaders are looking to cut costs, they should start with non-clinical overhead. Why are multiple consulting agencies being paid to do work that highly compensated management should already be capable of doing? Why did we pay $50,000 for new hospital signage?
I worked for years at a hospital in Florida that was once on the brink of bankruptcy. The CEO there spoke to staff monthly. He explained decisions. He took responsibility. The hospital didn’t survive by blaming others. It thrived by investing in clinical services and growing revenue responsibly. Today, it generates over a billion dollars a year.
Watsonville Community Hospital has land. Licenses. Infrastructure. A committed workforce. It has everything it needs to succeed. It does not succeed by closing departments, pleading poverty or treating federal cuts as a permanent excuse. It succeeds by building services people actually need.
That means expanding the emergency department, investing in imaging and recruiting specialists who generate revenue while serving the community. One or two strong cardiologists offering advanced procedures could pay for themselves in less than a year.
Nurses are afraid to speak up. Retaliation is real. I know, because I have experienced it. But silence is more dangerous – to patients, and to this hospital’s future.
My mother survived war-torn Europe during World War II. She taught me one thing above all else: take care of people. That is what I am doing now.
This is not an attack on Watsonville Community Hospital. It is a defense of it. We do not need a tin cup. We need accountability, transparency and leadership willing to invest in patient care rather than manage decline.
I will continue to advocate for the patient in the bed. I hope those entrusted with this hospital’s resources will do the same.
Driss Hassam is a nurse at Watsonville Community Hospital.