The SEIU Hospital Accountability Project: Striving For Equal Health Care Access

Hospitals are supposed to heal people. But for some of the Chicago area’s most vulnerable citizens, one hospital chain is aggravating the wounds of racial inequality. That’s why the Service Employees International Union formed a coalition of religious leaders, neighborhood organizations and human rights groups to oppose Advocate Health Care’s effort to cut core services at Bethany Hospital on Chicago’s West Side.

The coalition hired Valerie Denney Communications to direct a media campaign in opposition to the proposed cuts at Bethany and other issues related to Advocate’s treatment of low-income populations. VDC generated a nearly 100 news stories on the controversy during 2007, including front-page coverage in the Wall St. Journal and the Chicago Sun-Times.

The coverage played an instrumental role in a watershed ruling by state regulators to deny permission to cut services. That decision was later overturned, but an appeal is under consideration.