Four nurses have filed a class-action lawsuit against St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Illinois, alleging that its owners — Prime Healthcare Services and Ascension Healthcare — chronically understaffed the hospital to the point of patient harm and nurse psychological injury. The lawsuit was filed June 8 in Will County Circuit Court and names as plaintiffs Cathy Wolff, Mary Sue Bulger, Paula Koranda, and Cindy Poe — current and former nurses who collectively represent decades of service at the facility.
The 21-page complaint alleges that nursing staff at the hospital dropped from approximately 550 to 250 under the ownership transition from Ascension to Prime Healthcare — a cut of more than half. Nurses allege the understaffing resulted in delayed patient care and medications, preventable infections, increased medical errors, and a working environment where nurses were routinely assigned more patients than they could safely manage regardless of acuity.
The Legal Claims: Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress and Willful Conduct
The lawsuit frames its primary legal claims around intentional infliction of emotional distress and willful and wanton conduct — not merely negligence. This is a higher legal bar but carries the possibility of punitive damages if the court finds the conduct was deliberately disregarding nurse and patient safety. The complaint alleges nurses filed hundreds of "assignment despite objection" (ADO) forms documenting unsafe assignments, and that hospital leadership systematically ignored them.
Illinois's Nurse Staffing by Patient Acuity Act (Public Act 93-0434) requires hospitals to develop written staffing plans with nurse input and publicly post unit-level staffing data monthly. The lawsuit alleges the posted data did not accurately reflect actual staffing conditions during peak census periods — a statutory compliance claim layered on top of the tort claims.
"We are drowning," was a phrase used by multiple nurses in media statements accompanying the lawsuit filing. Plaintiff Cindy Poe, who the complaint notes worked at St. Joseph's for more than 52 years, is quoted describing the visible deterioration of staffing conditions over the period of ownership transition. "What they've done to this hospital is not an accident. It is a choice — made by executives far from the bedside — and patients have paid for it."
Prime Healthcare and Ascension Both Named
The naming of both Prime Healthcare and Ascension in the same lawsuit is notable. Ascension, which previously owned the facility, and Prime Healthcare, which currently operates it, are both held liable in the complaint's framing. Prime Healthcare — a for-profit chain with 45 hospitals across 14 states, headquartered in Ontario, California — responded to media inquiries by stating that "the majority of these allegations involve periods of time under previous ownership" and that current staffing practices align with national standards.
That response doesn't address the complaint's allegations about current conditions. Prime Healthcare acquired St. Joseph Medical Center from Ascension in 2022. The lawsuit covers the period from Ascension's ownership through the Prime transition, and the plaintiffs allege conditions worsened under Prime rather than improving after the acquisition.
This Is the Second Illinois Nursing Lawsuit Against Prime in 2026
The St. Joseph Joliet case follows a pattern. Prime Healthcare has simultaneously been the target of unfair labor practice charges in Chicago — including the NNOC/NNU ULP strike at Prime-owned Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital on June 11. Prime's labor and legal exposure across its Illinois portfolio is significant heading into the second half of 2026. The Illinois Nurses Association has filed separate ULP charges alleging Prime Healthcare undermined patient care and violated labor law at multiple facilities in the state.
Class-action lawsuits by nurses over unsafe staffing are rare but precedent-setting. A successful verdict or settlement at St. Joseph's would establish that hospital ownership entities face financial liability — not just regulatory fines — for chronic understaffing decisions. That precedent would matter beyond Illinois.
The "assignment despite objection" form exists for exactly this reason. Every ADO form you file is a timestamped, employer-received record of an unsafe assignment. Hundreds of them, ignored, is exactly the kind of evidence that becomes exhibit A in a class-action complaint. The nurses who filed this lawsuit are using the documentation trail that most nursing staff don't maintain because they assume nothing will change. Something is changing. If you're working in chronically understaffed conditions, start the paper trail today.