RNs at Prime Healthcare facilities suspended and fired for speaking up for patients

Registered nurses at Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC) in Lewiston, Maine will hold an informational picket on Tuesday, September 15 in solidarity with nurse colleagues within the Prime Healthcare hospital system who are on strike on the same day at Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields, Illinois to protest the suspension of six nurses at Olympia Fields announced Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC). NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the country. Like their striking coworkers in Illinois, CMMC nurses also want to unionize and will vote later this month.

Since the suspension of the Olympia Fields nurses, two of the suspended nurses have been fired as well as a nurse at Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, Illinois, and three nurses at Central Maine Medical Center have been suspended — all for speaking up for their patients. Earlier this summer, Prime Healthcare management fired six nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago.

Nurses and health care workers at three Prime hospitals in two states will hold sympathy strikes on September 15 in solidarity with their striking RN colleagues at Olympia Fields, who are protesting nurses who were suspended or fired : RNs at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nev. and West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, California, and nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, California. Also, nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth in Chicago will hold an informational picket on September 15. In total, more than 2,800 nurses and health care workers will be either striking or picketing on September 15.

“We are united with nurses at other Prime Healthcare hospitals,” said Cynthia Gahagan, RN in the operating room at CMMC. “We will be picketing in solidarity with nurses at Olympia Fields who are striking on September 15. Nurses shouldn’t have been suspended or fired for speaking up for their patients. Prime must do the right thing and reinstate all nurses.”

• Who:    Registered nurses at Central Maine Medical Center

• What:   Informational picket in solidarity with striking nurses at Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields, Illinois.

• When:  Tuesday, September 15, 7:30-10 a.m.

• Where: Central Maine Medical Center, 300 Main St., Lewiston, Maine

Nurses across the country are organizing and speaking up systemwide against Prime Healthcare because Prime endangers patients and nurses by putting profits above all else. RNs at three Prime Healthcare facilities, Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields, Illinois, Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, Illinois, and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, filed union election petitions on August 24 because they know that only through unionization can they force Prime to address their concerns about patient care and safe staffing. CMMC nurses’ union election is scheduled for September 24. Olympia Fields RNs’ election date is September 23.

On September 3, nurses at four Prime hospitals across three states — West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, California; Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada; Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago, Illinois; and nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, California — held one-day strikes to protest Prime’s refusal to address their deep concerns about patient care and safe staffing. Nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth voted to join NNOC in June.

Nurses in Nevada, Illinois, and Maine are represented or seeking representation by NNOC. NNOC represents 9,000 nurses in Chicagoland, including RNs at Cook County Health, UChicago, and the VA. MSNA/NNOC represents 4,000 nurses and health care workers in Maine. Nurses in California are represented by California Nurses Association, an affiliate of NNU. The health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center are represented by Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union.

The RNs are part of a national union movement to fight for safe staffing and optimal patient care throughout the entire Prime Healthcare system. The suspensions and firing are just one aspect of Prime’s shoddy treatment of its workers. Learn more about Prime’s crimes at crimehealthcare.com.

Prime’s Profiteering

The conditions driving Prime nurses to take unprecedented collective action at their hospitals are part of a broader pattern of Prime negligence and cutting services despite its profits.

Prime has a history of acquiring hospitals and then cutting services after it promised to maintain them. 

• On September 1, 2026, Prime announced that it would suspend obstetric services at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, and Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago and consolidate them at Saint Mary of Nazareth in Chicago and Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields, Illinois U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood accused Prime of putting “profits over patients” and of having “no plans” to help patients travel miles to receive obstetrics care.
• Less than two months after it acquired St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee, Illinois, in March 2025, Prime shut down the hospital’s obstetrics, gynecology, childbirth and delivery services and voluntarily gave up the facility’s Level II trauma designation, resulting in an injunction filed by the Kankakee County State’s Attorney, claiming that Prime was dishonest about keeping all services open for 18-24 months after acquisition.
• Prime cut services in May 2025 at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Illinois and in April 2025 at Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, Illinois, soon after acquisition, leading to a letter to Prime CEO Prem Reddy from Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin accusing the company of violating its commitments to maintain services to meet community needs.

Prime greatly benefits financially from Prime Healthcare Foundation, its nonprofit hospital system.

• In 2024, Prime Healthcare Foundation gave more than $104 million in business to firms owned by the Reddy family— Prime Healthcare Services Inc., Prime Healthcare Management, and Bio-Med Services, Inc., according to its Form 990. CEO Prem Reddy is the founder of Prime Healthcare.
• Prime’s nonprofit hospital system only provided $3.5 million in uncompensated charity care for patients in 2024, about 0.4 percent of the foundation’s expenses.
• In 2024, Prime Healthcare Foundation claimed more than $78 million in debts they tried to collect from patients who qualified for charity care.

Maine State Nurses Association is part of National Nurses Organizing Committee, representing 4,000 nurses and other caregivers from Portland to Fort Kent. NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing labor union of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide.