Seattle Children’s Hospital Workforce Protest for Full Covington Report

by Jasmine M. Pulido

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About 100 workers from Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH) participated in a one-hour silent protest in entrance of the hospital’s predominant campus on Sandpoint Way on Wednesday, Aug. 11, at midday. Smaller protests occurred concurrently on the Autism Center, Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic (OBCC), and the CURE middle. The protests comply with the conclusion of an unbiased evaluation into systemic and interpersonal racism on the hospital, carried out by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Covington & Burling agency, and the preliminary determination by SCH to solely launch a abstract of the suggestions from the investigation, not the findings. Following public outcry, SCH’s board of trustees launched 11 predominant findings and detailed suggestions earlier this week, however group members say much more must be achieved.

The investigation was initially prompted after Dr. Ben Danielson, medical director at OBCC, resigned final November. After 20-plus years of service, Danielson cited a number of situations of racism he both skilled or witnessed as a medical supplier on the hospital.

On Aug. 9, CEO Jeff Sperring and board chair Susan Betcher every launched letters disclosing the summary of 11 findings statements in addition to the detailed recommendations of Covington & Burling’s report. Yet regardless of releasing new pertinent info from the report, a number of calls for the resignation of the CEO and board chair are nonetheless being made based mostly each on the premise that info was initially withheld to start with below the guise of confidentiality and the stark findings of the investigation. Washington State BLM Alliance just lately began a petition demanding each the resignation of SCH management in addition to the discharge of the complete report written by Covington & Burling.

SCH workers initially deliberate a walkout to protest the choice to withhold the findings of the Covington & Burling investigation. However, following the discharge of the 11 findings, SCH workers continued their plans to protest. Employees need full transparency by accessing the complete report together with the names of institutional leaders who perpetrated racism at Seattle Children’s. SCH workers have additionally demanded public apologies to be issued for the hurt achieved to Danielson and the SCH group, according to suggestions made for management inside Covington & Burling’s report.

“The goal of the protest was to reveal to the general public/group and our sufferers/households that we stand with them in advocating for Transparency and Accountability (no matter which will appear like),” an nameless SCH worker wrote in an electronic mail to the Emerald. “We try to distance ourselves from the racism perpetuated by the hospital management, since we frequently really feel complicit in that by simply persevering with to work at this hospital. We wish to present the BIPOC group that there are employees who’re on their aspect and that sufferers and households will proceed to return first to us.”