NYC Health + Hospitals lays off 476 to stem financial bleeding
Of these, 396 are management positions that were eliminated effective immediately on Friday.
New York City's struggling public hospital system has eliminated 476 positions in a move expected to save $60 million in personnel costs in 2018, according to NYC Health + Hospitals.
Of these, 396 are management positions that were eliminated effective immediately on Friday.
Eighty are current vacancies that will no longer be filled. Another 98 of those staffers will have the opportunity to return to their non-management jobs if they choose.
No union employees were affected.
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"Today we've implemented a difficult but necessary action to help build a stronger, more agile, and more stable public healthcare delivery system," said Stanley Brezenoff, interim president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals. "By restructuring and reducing unnecessary layers of management, we can better direct resources where we need them most--at the front line of patient care. There will be no impact on services or patient care, quality, or safety."
NYC Health + Hospitals posted losses of $673 million in the third quarter, compared to $349 million in losses during the same period in 2016, according to the third quarter financial statement ending March 31.
During a May 9 budget hearing, Brezenoff told New York City executives that the health system was facing a fiscal cliff of a $1.1 billion budget gap for 2018 that would only increase in 2019.
"This is brought on by higher costs and inefficiencies in our system, and reimbursement policy changes at the federal and state levels that have yielded severe shortfalls associated with being the city's single largest provider of care to Medicaid and uninsured patients," Brezenoff said.
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The GOP plan to cap Medicaid benefits based on the number of beneficiaries in a state, is expected to have a negative effect on the safety net provider that serves 1.2 million people, of which more than 425,000 are uninsured.
In 2016, there were an estimated 1.2 million emergency room visits, which is approximately 30 percent of the city's emergency department visits, according to Brezenoff.
"We have busy emergency departments – some of the busiest in the country – with low admission rates, which indicate patient needs could be better addressed in lower-cost, lower acuity settings," he said. "We also have excess inpatient bed capacity, as do other hospitals across New York City, reflecting the success of strategies to better serve patients in their communities before intensive inpatient care is needed."
Friday's layoffs are in addition to 70 employees who were let go from the public hospital system in February.
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Management employees affected will remain on payroll for two weeks. They will receive health insurance coverage until later this month and lump sum payments for their accumulated leave times.
The positions eliminated are all management posts identified by hospital and system leaders as no longer necessary based on best practice models, patient volume, size of facility, and the system's goal to shift from a hospital-centric organization to a health system focused on wellness, prevention, and outpatient care, according to NYC Health + Hospitals. As a result of the restructuring, the number of management layers has been reduced from an average of six to four, in line with other large health systems nationally.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
