March 29, 2024
Unprecedented hospital layoffs and closures underway in US well being programs

The disaster gripping the well being care system within the US is intensifying, with unprecedented numbers of hospital closures on the horizon and new mass layoffs amongst well being care employees. Because the world enters the fourth yr of the pandemic, and the mass an infection insurance policies of the Biden administration and governments all over the world proceed to make sure the pummeling of well being programs, hospitals are additionally being flooded with youngsters and adults affected by respiratory diseases resembling respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza.

Within the US alone, by official counts 1.14 million Individuals have died from COVID-19, with 20,000 deaths occurring for the reason that begin of the brand new yr. A staggering 450 individuals are dying every day, in response to the present seven-day common. Regardless of President Biden declaring the pandemic over, these contaminated with the coronavirus are nonetheless presenting in hospitals. 

The US well being care system is reaching its breaking level, exacerbated by hospital understaffing, significantly amongst nurses. When one hospital closes, the influence on a complete area is immense. The present fee of hospital closures and layoffs exposes a system organized on the idea of revenue, and which lacks any important planning to offer top quality medical care. 

Unprecedented hospital layoffs and closures underway in US well being programs
ProMedica headquarters in Toledo, Ohio [Photo by Ohio Redevelopment Projects / CC BY-SA 4.0]

A current report in Becker’s Hospital Overview famous an enormous array of “workforce discount efforts or job eliminations that had been introduced inside the previous three months and/or take impact over the following month,” inside well being programs. The record contains: 

  • Oklahoma College (OU) Well being, a educating hospital in Oklahoma Metropolis, which is eliminating “about 100 positions as a part of an organizational redesign.”  
  • Integris Well being, one other Oklahoma Metropolis-based well being system, is “eliminating 200 jobs to curb bills.”
  • ProMedica in Toledo, Ohio, plans to put off 262 staff, to take impact between March 10 and April 1. 
  • On November 11, St. Vincent Charity Medical Middle in Cleveland, Ohio, closed its emergency room and inpatient care companies, shedding practically a thousand employees. 
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Most cancers Middle is shedding 337 staff throughout 14 websites in New York Metropolis, or about 1.8 p.c of the most cancers heart’s 22,500 workforce.
  • Pikeville Medical Middle in Kentucky laid off 112 staff on the finish 2022. 
  • Desert Springs Hospital Medical Middle in Las Vegas is notifying its employees of upcoming layoffs with its transition to a freestanding emergency division, which can have an effect on 970 staff.
  • Kaweah Well being in Visalia, California, goals to remove 94 positions after reducing its workforce by 106.