RNs will hold picket to demonstrate mounting opposition among staff and community to cuts at safety-net hospital and health system

Registered nurses with the California Nurses Association (CNA) will hold a picket outside the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 19, to demand hospital and county leaders move funding to save our health system, maintain services, and reverse the dangerous dismantling of the enhanced care management (ECM) program, which provides services to the most vulnerable county patients, including those who are unhoused, frequent ER users, nursing home residents, and high-risk pregnant people. Nurses have been bargaining with the county since July 2025 to improve patient care, patient safety, and infection control that would keep nurses with the county. Instead of working to improve conditions in our facilities, the county is laying off nurses as it eliminates 46 nursing positions and vital patient care services.

“We are horrified by Contra Costa Health’s decision to dismantle a program originally intended to send specially trained nurses to provide care to patients with complex medical conditions as they leave incarceration, recover from rehabilitation, are experiencing homelessness, those in foster care and many others, in order to catch onset medical conditions,” said Brenda Moore, a public health nurse in the ECM program. 

In December, Contra Costa Health reported to the Board of Supervisors an impending $307 million deficit due to the passage of H.R. 1. In the wake of that announcement, Contra Costa Health decided to do away with the ECM program.

“When the federal government approves a budget that abandons Contra Costa residents, it is on our county officials to find a way to preserve patient care and save our health system without cutting vital patient care services,” continued Moore. 

Who:    RNs in the Contra Costa Health system

What:   Picket to reverse dangerous cuts to patient care

When:  Thursday, Feb. 19, 2-4:30 p.m.

Where: Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, 2500 Alhambra Ave., Martinez, Calif.

Nurses are calling on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, who have oversight over the County Department of Health, to reverse the decision as it would deny patients critical care by clinically trained staff. Nurses contend that shuttering ECM will lead to an increase in illness and disease among those who seek care in the program, and will have a negative impact on the county’s ER as patients will seek costly emergency treatment.

“This shortsighted decision will only lead to short-term savings but cause long-term costs both fiscally and to patient care by impacting our hospital facilities with what were previously preventable cases,” said Vicky Davidson, a public health nurse who works in the ECM program. “Cutting patient access to essential, life-saving services is antithetical to Contra Costa Health’s own mission ‘to care for and improve the health of all people in Contra Costa County with special attention to those who are most vulnerable to health problems.’”

CNA represents more than 1,300 registered nurses in the Contra Costa Health system. Nurses have been in contract negotiations since July 2025.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with more than 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and more than 225,000 RNs nationwide.