Hospitals Slash Nursing Jobs in Connecticut

Posted on August 4, 2010

Healthcare jobs are expected to increase over the next year in many regions, but hospitals are actually eliminating nursing jobs in Connecticut.
Many hospitals are still operating in the red and continue to restructure to account for loss of patients and funds.

Patient volume is declining and funding has been cut all around. Mass layoffs are still commonplace at hospitals around the country.

St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford will cut roughly 200 full-time equivalent positions from its 3,500 employees in late August.

It has not been decided yet which workers will be let go. Representatives remain mum on whether the layoffs will include doctors, nurses, administrative staff, or others. The hospitals currently has almost 600 beds.

The CEO said there has been a modest decline in patient intake, and therefore the cuts are necessary.

In addition, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements have declined.

The Connecticut Hospital Association believes the St. Francis layoffs could be the tip of a growing iceberg. “I think there’s going to be further downsizing, wage freezes and cutting benefits,” Stephen Frayne, the association’s senior vice president of health policy told the Hartford Courant. “Hospitals are going after ways to reduce their expenses.”

According to the Courant, deficit of $31.7 million, or 5.6 percent of its total revenue, in the year ending June 30, 2008, according to a state report. That year, the cost of care that the hospital provided without receiving payment grew from $12.5 million to $15 million. But in fiscal year 2009, St. Francis was in the black, with a 1.8 percent margin, the state Office of Health Care Access reported.