They are some of the worst allegations that can be leveled against a hospital.

Shoddy patient care. State violations. Weak accreditation standards. Few nurses.

The stark charges come courtesy of a local union, which has Resurrection Health Care in its sights. The hospital system says the charges are fabricated.

AFSCME Council 31 launched a pair of  television spots targeting what it calls "risky" health care practices at Resurrection's eight hospitals in early May. They are now featured prominently on a Web site, ResQuality.com, which keeps a tally of what union representatives say is a long list of health care violations, broken laws and poor reviews of Resurrection properties.

"All of these serious concerns articulated in the spots and on the site grow out of the voices of employees as expressed to us," says Anders Lindall, an AFSCME spokesman.

Among the concerns listed on the site are claims that Resurrection has been cited by health officials nearly 1,000 times in the last five years, that the system's accrediting body is "less transparent" than another used by most hospitals, and that St. Joseph Hospital was placed under state monitoring this year.

The list continues through many pages, citing public documents and information obatined through the Freedom of Information Act, and includes patient testimonials about care received at Resurrection hospitals.

The site has angered Resurrection officials, who vehemently deny any of the accusations leveled against the system.

"It is one of the most shocking, irresponsible things we've ever seen," says Resurrection spokesman Brian Crawford. "We think it's outrageous and we don't see what it has to do with the union organizing."

AFSCME has been trying to organize workers at Resurrection for a number of years, and workers told the Daily News in March they fear retribution for taking steps to organize. Currently, fewer than 100 Resurrection employees - all skilled workers - belong to Local 399 Operating Engineers. Resurrection employs about 15,000 people.

Crawford denies there is a culture of intimidation.

"Our employees have the right to choose whether or not to be represented by a union. We don't practice intimidation or anti-union behavior," he says.

The Web site, Crawford says, is "a new low" and part of a continued pattern of the union "terrorizing Resurrection Health Care."

"They've failed" in organizing Resurrection employees, "and now they're taking it to the public with these desperately irresponsible ads," he says.

"What it does is to try to embarrass and intimidate this system," says Howard Peters, a senior vice president for government relations with the Illinois Hospital Association, of which Resurrection is a member.

It's a strong-arm tactic, he says: "This is not new stuff. It's in the playbook."

Bill Sullivan, president of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians, has seen similar tactics before. Several years ago, another union trying to represent hospital employees started an inflammatory Web site, and even bused in poor patients to the hospital, asking them feign illness, he says.

"When I read this site, it makes me question what their motives are," he says.

Lindall says the union is trying to allow the voices of workers to be heard. Employees, he said, are upset at what they feel is a culture of intimidation - resulting in the firing of some union workers - and worry the hospital is not living up to its Catholic mission.

"It's definitely been a long-running campaign of ours to work with Resurrection employees," Lindall says. "Because of Resurrection management's stonewalling and years of refusal to work with us, to open a dialogue with concerned employees, we felt that we needed to continue to find ways to bring those views to the public."

And Resurrection, he says, has its own pattern of manipulation. In January, it was forced to settle a multi-million dollar lawsuit for overcharging uninsured patients.

"The concerns about patient care, quality of care, appropriate staffing, accreditation, it springs from the concerns of employees who want to see the hospitals be a better place to work and a better place for their communities to get better health care," Lindall says.

Crawford disputes that, citing a report in Modern Healthcare Magazine calling Resurrection the 19th best place to work in the country. He says the health system has no ongoing issues with the state. Sullivan said the system's accrediting body, while used by a minority of hospitals, is legitimate, and in fact becoming a more popular option for hospitals.

Crawford says the union is taking its frustration out on the community with a "misuse of facts."

"We believe only our employees should make that choice (to organize)," he says. "Certainly this union has no right to choose to be our employees' representative without our employees choosing them."