NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — Nurses and health care workers held an informational picket Tuesday outside Our Lady of Fatima Hospital amid an ongoing contract dispute with CharterCARE’s new owner.
The United Nurses and Allied Professionals, which represents employees at Fatima Hospital, Roger Williams Medical Center and CharterCare Home Health and Hospice, said it has been bargaining with Centurion management for more than five months.
Union leaders said the demonstration was intended to raise concerns about stalled contract negotiations and management’s plans to permanently close CharterCare’s home health operation.
The service had been suspended while CharterCARE’s former owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, went through bankruptcy proceedings. UNAP maintains the agency was never formally closed and remains licensed to operate.
Centurion and CharterCARE received $18 million in Rhode Island funding connected to Centurion’s acquisition of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center.
In its Hospital Conversion Act application, Centurion outlined plans to invest in home health services and promote access to those programs, according to documents provided by the union.
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“Today’s an informational picket line,” UNAP President Lynn Blais said. “We want to call our new owners out and say, ‘You came into our state making a lot of promises. You were going to protect services. You were going to protect jobs. You were going to protect and take care of the community and the workers.’”
Blais accused Centurion and CharterCARE of falling short of those commitments and using decisions made by Prospect as justification for closing the home health operation.
“Their home health unit was never closed, and it still has a license to operate,” Blais said. “The expectation — based on Centurion’s own words — is that they would not only invest in home health, but also conduct ‘significant outreach to the community in its first year to promote access to home health services.’”
CharterCARE says the union has it all wrong, saying to NBC10 in a statement: “Our prior owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, made the decision to close it in late 2025 based on declining volume, significant monthly losses, and the availability of more than 60 competing home care agencies in RI.”
Cindy Fenchel, president of the Fatima Service Workers Bargaining Unit, said workers are concerned about what the decision could mean for other jobs and services.
“The closure of home health is not only a serious blow to patient care, but it raises questions about what other services or jobs could be next,” Fenchel said.
Lynn Redding, president of the registered nurses’ bargaining unit at Roger Williams Medical Center, called on the companies to preserve the service.
“We are calling on Centurion and CharterCARE to do the right thing, protect these services, and live up to the promises they made to the state, their employees and the patients who rely on them,” Redding said.
UNAP said it is planning an open-ended public campaign opposing the closure and encouraging Rhode Islanders to contact state leaders.