1000+ Jackson Health System Layoffs Up for Debate

Some of you may have caught our earlier coverage of the layoffs of members of the clinical staff at Jackson Health System, but for those of you who did catch it here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed:

“More bad news is coming to health care workers and this time it is the workers of the Jackson Health System. The Jackson Health System, which is located in the Miami area, is getting ready to get rid of a number of jobs. At the current moment the Chief Executive of the hospital system, Carlos Migoya, is not giving out a lot of details on the specifics. He would say that the company is looking into making cuts in each of its departments in order to find out where the cuts can be made. The hospital was quick to stress the fact that there will be no impact to patient care. They hope to have more details in about the cuts in the next two weeks.

The health system is attributing the cut back of staff to a drop in the number of patients that are coming to the facilities. Most notably was the delay in care given, choosing outpatient procedures instead of staying in the hospital and shorter stays in the hospital over all. With fewer patients the facility not only has less revenue, but also as they see it, creates a need for a smaller staff. At the current moment union leaders are not issuing any official statements about the decision to make the job cuts. They may be waiting to find out how many jobs are being cut and what kinds of positions are being let go before they talk to the hospital leaders or the media.”

Well, it looks like those workers are not going to go down without a fight. The union was looking to make the decision one of public opinion, instead of line items on a budget and it looks like they will get their wish. Earlier this week Miami-Dade County Commission Chairman Joe Martinez approved the union’s request to have a public hearing about the layoffs at the hospital.

The layoff, which are slated to impact 1,117 workers w is expected by the unions and lawmakers to have significant impact on the care given to patients. The hospital has a plan to help with this, one that will require hiring on about 335 part time workers in order to meet its staffing needs for clinical units on an as needed basis, but many think that the plan will not be practical when it comes to meeting patient needs.
Of course, there are not the only cuts that Jackson Health System has made in the last couple of years. In November of 2011 the hospital system saw fit to layoff more than 200 workers in order to make its budget work and back in 2010 the hospital made some serious staffing cuts. 4,500 workers were let go in a massive layoff action by the facility. So who knows, this may be just one more in a long line of future cuts that the hospital system is making to try and squeeze every dime out of its budget.