RNRN/NNU nurses just returned from a deployment providing medical assistance at the 70th annual Navajo Nation fair in Window Rock, Arizona. Our team consisted of RNs from California, Colorado, Louisiana and Oregon.

As Minnesota RNs strike against Allina Health Systems, nurses are concerned over the hospitals business dealings. The hospital wants to shift $10 million dollars in healthcare costs to nurses at a time when Allina financial disclosures report $1.3 billion dollars in net profit over the past 6 years, with $130 million in net revenue in 2015 alone.

It’s been well reported that Allina Health, a $3.9-billion nonprofit healthcare organization, “invested” $108 million in Health Catalyst, a private for-profit technology company. As part of the deal, Allina is outsourcing its “data warehousing, analytics, performance improvement technology, and personnel to Health Catalyst.”

It is time for Congress to take real action to protect babies from the Zika epidemic, stop the spread of the virus, and prevent this public health crisis from getting worse.