Parents are asking the Carondelet Health Network to reconsider a decision to close its popular, longtime child-care centers.
The centers — Casita Maria and Casita José — are unusual for several reasons, chief among them the opportunity they give hospital employees to have their children close while they work.
The child care is open to the community but offered at a discount rate to employees of the Carondelet Health Network, a Southern Arizona hospital chain. The network’s majority owner is Dallas-based for-profit Tenet Healthcare.
Casita Maria, across the street from west-side Tucson’s Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital, is 25 years old and was modeled on the 30-year-old Casita José, which is on the campus of east-side Carondelet St. Joseph’s Hospital. Combined, they have a capacity of up to 201 infants and preschoolers — 116 at Casita Maria and 85 at Casita José.
Fewer than 5 percent of local employers who answered a 2017 Pima Association of Governments survey said they provide day care to their employees.
“Carondelet routinely evaluates employee benefits and has made the decision to no longer offer child-care services,” Carondelet Health Network CEO Mark Benz wrote in a statement to the Star. “We are offering assistance to connect families with local providers for services.”
Parents of children who attend the Carondelet child-care centers received a letter from Benz, dated May 1, saying the centers would close effective June 1.
But after pleas from parents and questions from the Star on Wednesday and Thursday, Benz amended the closure date to Aug. 3.
Benz wrote that Carondelet will work with affected families to connect them with discounted child-care services from other local providers. He also said the company is working to identify career options for affected staff.
The letter said the focus of Carondelet must be on the core mission of patient care and healing.
“While we are honored to have provided quality child care for many years, our focus must now fully shift to our mission and core competency of providing high quality health care,” he wrote.
Parents of children at Casita José say that rationale is “misguided.” The parents say providing the best health care for patients requires the best employees, and that the convenience and quality of the child-care centers are a recruitment and retention tool.
“Tenet professes a commitment to serving its community. Our families are part of that community and we ask for your help to reach a better solution,” says a letter signed by numerous Casita José parents.
The letter also states that parents believe Tenet failed to consider the challenges in obtaining child care that are unique to people working in health care.
“The convenience of child care on site cannot be overstated, and the loss of Casita José will directly affect the ability for many of us to arrive to work on time and maintain our commitment to scheduled shifts.”
Ownership change
Parent Cathleen Bender says Carondelet officials held a meeting with parents at Casita José, but that she left with little understanding about why the leadership decided to close the centers.
Bender and her husband, Jeff, have had children at Casita José since 2011. She found one phrase from the officials particularly troubling: “Child care is not in our wheelhouse.”
Bender said that mind-set does not take into account the far-reaching benefits of the centers, which include helping employees to achieve a successful work/life balance.
“The heart of that center (Casita José) is the staff, many of whom have been there between 10 and 25 years,” Bender wrote in a May 2 letter to Carondelet and Tenet officials. “They are family to us all. Casita José is a second home for our children.”
Like other parents, Bender asked Benz to reconsider the June 1 closure in order to give parents time to find other options. Benz’s amended closure date was announced late Thursday and does give families more time, though they’d prefer the centers remain open.
Casita José and Casita Maria operate on the philosophy of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, who founded both St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s hospitals: treat children with respect, dignity and love.
The staff-to-child ratio is typically 1 to 8, turnover among workers is low and there’s usually a waiting list.
The announced closure of the child-care centers is one of several changes in operations at Carondelet’s Tucson hospitals since Tenet became the majority owner in 2015.
When the deal was finalized, the Southern Arizona health network, which also includes Holy Cross Hospital in Nogales, went from nonprofit to for-profit.
The minority owners are California-based Dignity Health and former Carondelet owner, Missouri-based Ascension.
As a result of the ownership change, the Centurions, a philanthropic men’s organization, announced they would no longer be the booster organization for the hospital chain. The new for-profit status did not fit with the Centurions’ charter mission, the group said. The Centurions had raised almost $7 million for Carondelet hospital and health care projects since 1969.
And since the ownership change, the Carondelet Foundation has gone to court to disband and give the remainder of the donated funds it received to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson.
