BOSTON — Mass General Brigham plans to lay off hundreds of employees over the next two months as part of a broader restructuring effort to address a significant budget deficit.
In a statement released Monday, the state’s largest private employer announced it will be consolidating certain management and administrative positions, with a focus on non-clinical and non-patient-facing roles.
This move is aimed at enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and maximizing support for frontline clinicians, according to an MGB spokesperson.
“As a not-for-profit integrated healthcare system, Mass General Brigham is firmly committed to investing in our mission of patient care and quality outcomes, research, education, and improving the health in underserved communities,” the spokesperson said.
The statement also revealed that MGB is facing a $250 million budget deficit, and the layoffs are part of an effort to cut $200 million in salary and benefit expenses.
“We recognize the impact that this difficult decision will have on our impacted employees and Mass General Brigham is providing market competitive severance packages and benefits coverage to them,” the statement said. “We are grateful for the contributions of these colleagues and the value that all our employees bring to our organization each and every day”
The first round of layoffs is expected to take place this week, with a second round scheduled for March.
The layoffs could potentially impact employees at 12 hospitals under the MGB umbrella:
- Mass General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston
- Mass Eye and Ear 243 Charles Street, Boston
- Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston
- Spaulding Rehab Hospital, 300 1st Avenue, Charlestown
- Spaulding Rehab Hospital (Cape Cod), 311 Service Road, Sandwich
- Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, 1153 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
- McLean Hospital, 115 Mill Street, Belmont
- Newton-Wellesley Hospital, 2014 Washington Street, Newton
- Salem Hospital, 81 Highland Avenue, Salem
- Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, 789 Central Avenue, Dover, New Hampshire
- Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, 1 Hospital, Oak Bluffs
- Nantucket Cottage Hospital, 57 Prospect Street, Nantucket
While executives say the sweeping cuts are aimed at management and administrative-level employees with no impact on front-line workers, Boston University School of Public Health’s David Rosenbloom suspects the changes could reach patients.
“It’s impossible to shield these cuts from having an impact on patient care,” Rosenbloom said. “It will further harm providers. They will have less support than they have. They will feel less valued than they are.”
The dismal notification of the largest layoff in the history of MGB has left Newton Wellesley Hospital nurse Paula Ward fearing the worst for what’s to come.
“We’re already strapped as we are. There are tons of patients. I’m a 12-bed unit. As soon as we get patients out, we’re getting calls from all over the state and in other states in New England to get patients in there,” Ward said.
Ward, who serves as vice chair for the Mass. Nurses Association at Newton Wellesley, is not comforted by the assurance that the layoffs will not affect front-line workers.
“You take away the upper management in those smaller areas, it’s all going to flow down,” Ward said.
MGB said it’s been facing the “same unrelenting pressures” other health care systems nationwide have been dealing with.
“We are facing the same unrelenting pressures affecting many health care systems across the country that are contributing to a projected budget gap of a quarter of a billion dollars within the next two years,” the MGB spokesperson noted.
MGB currently employs approximately 82,000 people.
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