Nurses and their supporters hold an informational picket at Dominican Hospital on June 30. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
LIVE OAK >> Dominican Hospital nurses rallied in front of the medical center on Tuesday, one month after layoff notices were sent to about 20 nurses and staff. Drivers honked their horns in support as they passed dozens of nurses and their supporters chanting, waving signs and blowing whistles.
Hospital workers say the proposed cuts would jeopardize patient safety by stretching the staff thin and taking time away from patient care. CommonSpirit Health, which owns the hospital and more than 2,000 other health care centers in the U.S., did not say why the cuts were proposed.
CommonSpirit did not make anyone available for an interview with Santa Cruz Local. In an emailed statement, spokesperson Christina Zicklin wrote that “the safety of our caregivers and patients is our highest priority,” and said hospital operations were not affected by the rally.
Born and raised in Santa Cruz, Carly Chavez-Ellis has worked as a nurse at Dominican for three years. She said the cuts would slash “critical” staff positions. In the cardiac unit where she works, they are set to lose the person responsible for coordinating patient transportation and fielding phone calls from family members, other hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, patients who were discharged, and more.
“It’s scary, because all the nurses are wondering who’s going to take that role,” she said from the picket line. “I fear that nurses will be expected to step up and do those things, and that’s going to take nurses away from the bedside with direct patient care.”
Chavez-Ellis said the cardiac unit lost a staffer a couple years ago when CommonSpirit reduced the number of aides to three from four.
“Safe staffing saves lives,” she said, adding that the cuts are “under the guise of saving money, but their CEO made $14 million in 2025.”
Carly Chavez-Ellis, left, and Clara Hernandez rally against proposed layoffs at Dominican Hospital. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
Tax returns from the nonprofit show that the 30 top-paid employees each made more than $1 million in the fiscal year ended June 2025, and brought in more than $128 million collectively. CommonSpirit reported a total of $822 million spent on salaries for its roughly 160,000 employees. Top-heavy executive compensation is not unusual for large hospital systems.
Rory O’Moore, who’s worked in health care for nine years and has been at Dominican for two, said the decisions are being made by executives who don’t necessarily understand the direct effects cuts have on patients.
“This is people’s lives that they’re playing around with, and they just want to save a couple dollars,” O’Moore said. “We’re going to keep escalating until we have something.”
O’Moore said that ostensibly the reason for the cuts is the effect of the Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that decimated funding for Medicaid, but that the effects of that bill also mean fuller emergency rooms and the need for staff has only increased.
“It’s very short-sighted,” O’Moore said of the proposed cuts.
Rory O’Moore, left, and his twin sister, Elaine O’Moore, are nurses at Dominican Hospital. They hold union signs that read ‘Some cuts don’t heal.’ (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
Lauren Bailey works in the ER at Dominican and said she is also concerned about the effects on patient outcomes if the cuts go through.
“If these ancillary services get cut, then more is going to be on the plate of the nurses, which means less time with patients, less time being able to review charts, to get reports from the ER nurses trying to get patients upstairs,” she said. Fewer staff would slow the process of moving patients from the ER to other units, she said, which also means fewer available ER beds.
Proposed cuts include the staff responsible for answering call lights from patients, she said, which come from “patients who are asking for emergent things. ‘I have to go to the bathroom. I need pain medicine.’ Basic human needs. And again, that’s going to fall on the plate of the nurses.”
She added, “when you’re in a scenario where you feel like you’re stretched too thin, things get missed.”
Evelia Carter, an environmental services technician, blows a whistle during an informational picket at Dominican Hospital on June 30. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
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Nik Altenberg is a bilingual reporter and assistant editor at Santa Cruz Local. Nik Altenberg es reportera bilingüe y editora asistente para Santa Cruz Local.
Amaya Edwards is Santa Cruz Local's Photo and Social Media Journalist. She is a Catchlight Local Fellow.
