Getting SLAPPED for speaking out

By Ann Twomey
President
Health Professionals and Allied Employees

I never thought my life would intersect with Oprah Winfrey’s. I’m a registered nurse. She’s an empathetic television talk show host. But in a way, it was bound to happen.

I’ve always spoken up when I thought my patients or co-workers were being endangered by shortsighted hospital policies. I suppose that is how I ended up as president of Health Professionals and Allied Employees, New Jersey’s largest union of nurses and healthcare workers. It is also how my union and I wound up being sued by the for-profit healthcare company running our state’s largest hospital, Bergen Regional Medical Center.

When a court officer showed up at my office recently to serve me with a lawsuit, I joined a list of people as famous as Oprah Winfrey, and as brave and ordinary as any citizen, speaking his or her mind at a town meeting. I’m not sure any of us wanted to be in the position of being sued by a wealthy business just because we were exposing what we believed to be the truth and exercising our democratic rights. But here I am, in good company.

Oprah Winfrey was sued by Texas cattle rangers when she raised concerns over mad cow disease. Candice Owley, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, was sued when she spoke out about staffing changes in her hospital. Two British activists were sued by McDonald’s for publicly claiming that Big Macs were unhealthy and their production harmful to the environment. But most SLAPP suit “defendants” are average citizens.

These lawsuits to discourage people from speaking out on issues of public concern are called SLAPP suits, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. The purpose of a SLAPP suit brought by big or wealthy companies is simply to intimidate and silence those who speak out against them. Even when these companies lose, they win if individuals are frightened into silence.

In my case, the Bergen Regional lawsuit claims that testimony that I and other officials of my union gave before state and local legislative committees, as well as legitimate patient care complaints brought by nurses and other healthcare workers to the state Department of Health, represent “tortious interference” with Bergen Regional’s “prospective economic advantage”—in other words, its profit margin.

How disturbing it is that this hospital (not to mention the others around the country that have similarly threatened healthcare workers) would put profits before patient care. In a three-year period, the owners of the for-profit company that runs Bergen Regional made $70 million in profits. The owners have found their cash cow and wish we’d just shut up and let them enjoy it, even at the expense of patient care.

While the beef industry clearly had a wealthier target in Oprah than Bergen Regional has in me, the intent is the same. I’m bolstered by the fact that when my members or I speak out, we’re doing so for our patients and the integrity of our profession. It is not only our right, but also our obligation. If we don’t speak up for patients, who will?

It appears that Bergen Regional’s gambit is backfiring. When we went public with the lawsuit, the local newspaper ran an editorial criticizing it, pointing out that legitimate patient care complaints would have been kept secret without the willingness of health professionals to come forward. Local politicians condemned the hospital’s action and asked them to withdraw the suit. And the state Legislature is poised to act as well, with legislation to provide broader protection from SLAPP suits.

The lawsuit against me and my union is an attempt to make it more difficult to speak up, and it certainly has increased my personal risk, but there is no alternative. Like all registered nurses and other committed healthcare workers, we will continue to defend quality care … so sue me.