Coalition for Healthcare Access Responsibility and Transparency (CHART)
Materials - Background - Press
Get Involved! Email us at chartchicago@gmail.com
- Forms to Document UCMC Violation of Health Care Rights: Word Version - PDF Version
Email back to chartchicago@gmail.com or turn in to STOP office 813 E. 63rd St.
- Materials from June 3rd Whose Hospital? Event: Press Release - Flyer
- Materials from May 29th Defend the Women's Clinic Action: Press Release - Flyer
The University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) has been under fire for months now because of its controversial Urban Health Initiative. The American College of Emergency Physicians recently released a statement accusing the UCMC of patient dumping. It reads, in part:
The University of Chicago Medical Center is failing in its obligation to treat emergency patients... With hospital plans in place to reduce staffing and beds for emergency care even further, the chair of medicine and the chief of emergency medicine at the medical center have resigned.
The University of Chicago’s policy toward emergency patients is dangerously close to “patient dumping...” and reflect[s] an effort to “cherry pick” wealthy patients over poor...
This is a dangerous precedent that could have catastrophic effects in poor neighborhoods across the country... The University of Chicago Medical Center is located in a poor neighborhood whose residents have few, if any, other options for emergency care.”
Unfortunately the problems don't end at the emergency room. The University has laid off over 450 hospital workers and recently announced plans to close a Women's Health Clinic on 47th st. and Cottage Grove. "The University of Chicago has treated our community like a guinea pig since its inception. Now that they are at the Forefront of Medicine, they want to treat us like we are toxic waste. We as patients need this clinic and other local clinics cannot handle the dumping the University is planning,” says Deborah Tayler, a patient at the clinic and organizer with STOP.
STOP members are joining with workers, students and other advocates to organize and fight for the human right to health care. The newly formed Coalition for Healthcare Access Responsibility and Transparency (CHART) is connecting the dots between lay-offs, patient dumping at the emergency room, clinic closures, and inadequate healthcare for workers, students and community. While focused on the UCMC because of the dangerous precedents it is setting and the devastating impact of its policies on all parts of the community, the coalition sees this as part of the larger struggle for universal, single-payer health care in this country. Coalition members include STOP, Students for a Democratic Society, the Southside Solidarity Network, Students Organized and United with Labor, the Illinois Single Payer Coalition, and members of Teamsters Local 743
Download a fact sheet about the U of C Medical Center.
Rally against closing of U of C clinic - ABC Channel 7 News
"It started outside the clinc on East 47th st. The coalition of community members, workers, patients and students then marched to the U of C administration building. The clinic serves thousands of women, many of whom are on public aid. The group says they will continue to fight the closing. 'We are entitled to these benefits in this community. We are the residents here. We have health care rights and none of us plan to go without a fight,' said Deborah Taylor of Southside Together Organizing for Power."
Protesters rally against U of C's plans to shutter women's clinic - Chicago Tribune
"The protesters, including students and community activists, marched from the clinic on 47th st about 10 blocks to the University of Chicago Medical Center. There pleas to keep the clinic open were tied to the broader national issue of expanding health insurance coverage to everyone."
Protesters rally against U of C women's clinic closure - ChiTown Daily News
"'We believe this is part of the plan for transformation of the city, it's part of the gentrification,' said Deborah Taylor, a patient at the clinic. 'The only people being impacted here are... the students here at the university, the workers at the university, the elderly, the blacks, the poor. There's no reason for them to shut down the clinic or any other clinic in the community.'"
Clinic closure protested - Hyde Park Herald
"Protesters at the rally decried the closing of the clinic as part of a long-term plan by the university to shift funds from charity care to research... Evelyn Barnes, a former patient at the clinic, said she was disappointed the clinic would close...'Something needs to be done about the hospital system,' she said."
University of Chicago to Shutter Women's Clinic - Chicago Tribune
"What it really means is that if you're a young woman with a gynecological problem, you'll be treated at a local clinic. And if you have private insurance, you'll be treated at the University... Although much of the attention has focused on changes inside the medical center's emergency room, the hospital's restructuring is affecting other services that provide care for the poor."
U of C Medical Center emergency room plans come under new fire - Chicago Tribune
"The American College of Emergency Physicians called for a Congressional investigation into the U of C initiative and whether it violates federal 'patient dumping' laws. "
E.R. Doctors condemn University of Chicago plan to divert patients- Chicago Tribune
"The medical center is reducing emergency care access to its local community"
U of C Layoffs Prompt Protest - ABC Channel 7
"News of layoffs at the University of Chicago Medical Center is not sitting well with union workers. Dozens walked a picket line... to protest the cut-backs."
Laid off University of Chicago Workers Fighting Mad - Fight Back News
"STOP speaker Fred Payne supported the workers, telling them they were fighting for themselves and for patients like him. In addition to cutting jobs, the hospital announced plans to turn away more poor people who come to the emergency room... Most of the 80,000 patients that use the Emergency Room are African-American."