UPDATED: HealthAlliance cutting more jobs
HealthAlliance Hospital is planning to lay off the equivalent of 6.5 full-time nursing and support staff positions at its Burbank Campus in Fitchburg, according to hospital officials.
The cuts will involve registered nurses working at the Burbank Urgent Care Unit and the Simonds-Sinon Regional Cancer Center, the hospital said. The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), the union representing nurses, said the jobs will be eliminated by the end of May.
“We are focused on aligning our facilities and staffing patterns to patient volumes in order to improve operational efficiencies,” the hospital said in a statement.
The MNA criticized the decision.
“This is a dangerous plan that will degrade the quality of care we nurses have taken great pride in delivering,” Kerry Beaulac, an oncology nurse at the Burbank facility, said in a statement. “Our patients have the most to lose if this plan is allowed to be implemented.”
Some 4.9 positions – including 3.2 nursing positions – will be eliminated at the urgent care center, which the MNA said will leave about two registered nurses to examine the 45 to 90 patients who visit the center each day. The hospital said patient volumes at the center have declined by 6 percent over the past three years, necessitating a new model of care.
The cancer center will see 1.6 positions cut in its medical oncology and radiation oncology units, the hospital said. The center currently has six registered nurses, according to the MNA, who said support staff positions would also be affected.
The hospital said certified medical assistants will be used in the cancer center to support patients with non-nursing functions. But the MNA said the assistants are prohibited by law from performing nearly all the duties assigned to nurses, resulting in unsafe patient assignments and significantly less time for nurses to evaluate and treat each patient.
These cuts will follow the layoffs of four HealthAlliance information technology employees April 1. The hospital employs roughly 1,300, or some 900 full-time equivalents (FTEs).
HealthAlliance is owned by UMass Memorial Health Care, which has announced the layoffs of nearly 390 FTEs since October, including 81 nurses last week. Their jobs are expected to be cut June 15.
Updated at 3 p.m. with comments from HealthAlliance Hospital
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