Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital

St. Mary’s is one of Carondelet’s two hospitals in Tucson.

Parents are asking the Carondelet Health Network to reconsider a decision to close its popular, longtime child-care centers.

The child-care 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 by 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. Its majority owner is Dallas-based for-profit Tenet Healthcare,

Casita Maria, across the street from 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 Carondelet St. Joseph's Hospital.

Fewer than than five percent of local employers who answered a 2017 Pima Association of Governments survey said that they provide day care to their employees.

Parents of children who attend the Carondelet child-care centers this week received a letter from Cardondelet's CEO Mark A Benz that said, among other things, that the centers will close effective June 1.

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 decision was not easy, Benz wrote. But the focus of Carondelet must be on the, "core mission of patient care and healing," including, "high quality healthcare," he wrote.

But parents of children at Casita José say Benz's 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."

The parents are asking Tenet to reconsider the decision, or at least to give parents more time to find other child care options.

Late Thursday, Carondelet/Tenet issued a statement to the Star amending the closure date to Aug. 3. While it buys more time for families, they'd still prefer the centers remain open.

Parent Cathleen Bender says she left a meeting about the closure with little understanding about why it is happening. Bender and her husband, Jeff have had children at Casita José since 2011.  One phrase from the officials who were there was particularly troubling: "Child-care is not in our wheelhouse."

Bender said that mindset 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."

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 non-profit to for-profit.

The minority owners are California-based Dignity Health and former Carondelet owners from Missouri-based Ascension.

At that time, the Centurions, a philanthropic men's organization, announced they would no longer be the booster organization for the hospital chain as the ownership change to for-profit did not fit with the Centurions' charter mission. 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 disburse the remainder of its donated funds through the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson.


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Contact health reporter Stephanie Innes at sinnes@tucson.com

Twitter: @stephanieinnes