UMass Memorial Health

(UPDATED) Nurses at HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster will deliver a petition to CEO Deborah Weymouth today, asking her to rescind plans to reduce staffing and reorganize patient care services, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), the union representing the nurses.

An executive with Saint Vincent Hospital has been named to a new dual role of chief nursing officer and chief operating officer at Marlborough Hospital, the hospital announced Friday. John G. Kelly, a registered nurse with more than 22 years of experience as a health care provider in Massachusetts, the last seven in hospital leadership roles, will be responsible for both in-patient and out-patient services, according to Steven Roach, president and CEO at Marlborough Hospital, part of UMass Memorial Health Care.

Registered nurses at HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster have filed an unfair labor practice charge over what they say is the hospital's refusal to provide key information about its plans to merge hospital services and cut staff, according to the union that represents the nurses.

UMass Memorial Medical Center is one of the 15 highest-rated hospitals in the United States for patients who need heart surgery, according to Consumer Reports' inaugural ratings of heart-surgery hospitals.

HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster plans to layoff the equivalent of at least 20 full-time workers, according to the union representing nurses.

HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster on Wednesday said it will lay off employees from clinical and administrative departments, including managerial staff, due to declining patient volumes.

UMass Memorial Health Care's (UMMHC) credit rating outlook was lowered Friday from stable to negative by Standard & Poor's Rating Services following weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Losses for Worcester-based UMass Memorial Health Care (UMMHC) are shrinking, though some of its hospitals actually widened their losses, according to second-quarter financial results released Tuesday by the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis.

UMass Memorial Health Care has reduced its ownership stake in Worcester's Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital from 50 percent to 20 percent, according to an announcement yesterday.

Most MetroWest-area hospitals were profitable in fiscal 2013, but profits faltered considerably at most hospitals, year over year, according to a report issued last week by the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA). CHIA released the financial information in its 2013 Massachusetts Acute Hospital Financial Performance Report, the first such report by the agency, which is tasked with monitoring health care spending under the state's 2012 health care cost containment law.