By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
GREENWICH VILLAGE — For the nurses at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, curing the Catholic-affiliated hospital of its financial ailments requires an appeal to powers higher than that of elected office.
That’s why dozens of St. Vincent’s nurses stepped away from their daily medical practice on Monday to join together in prayer at the hospital’s chapel for the ailing medical center that is on the brink of bankruptcy.
“Bless us in prayer as we seek to find an answer,” Sister Miriam Kevin Phillips, St. Vincent's senior vice president of mission, told a solemn congregation inside the chapel. “We need God’s wisdom, and we ask for it; we will need strength, and we ask for it . . . to ensure the future of Catholic health care at St. Vincent’s.”
A government task force convened by Governor David Paterson — including the hospital's creditors and management, elected officials, and union and trade leaders — has been meeting for the past month to explore solutions to save the Catholic Church-affiliated hospital.
St. Vincent’s is officially sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and the Sisters of Charity.
Still, concern is mounting in the hospital community, as no workable proposal has been offered to stave off closure.
More than 800 registered nurses work at St. Vincent’s, according to the New York State Nurses Association. Recently, they had to take pay cuts of 10 percent, and several were laid off as the hospital struggles with $700 million in debt.
“We’ve been short-staffed, and the nurses step up and deliver every day,” said Eileen Dunn, a St. Vincent’s nurse and president of NYSNA.
She explained that she had frequently come to the chapel to pray for her patients, but now she stops by with the hospital’s well being in mind.
“I’ve always come here for comfort,” Dunn said, tearing up. “Now I find myself coming back to pray for the hospital.”
Grace Strazzire has worked as a nurse at St. Vincent’s for more than 40 years, but she has come more recently as a patient with metastatic lung cancer. For her, the 160-year-old facility is unique for its patient care.
“We’re not an institution,” she said. “We’re a spirit — one that is kind, charitable and genuine. Never lose sight of that.”
