Unionized nurses and healthcare employees conducted informational picketing Tuesday at Women & Infants and Butler hospitals, which are operated by Providence, R.I.-based Care New England, according to a Providence Journal report.
During the pickets, employees of CNE's flagship Women & Infants Hospital and Butler Hospital in Providence, represented by SEIU 1199 New England, urged CNE to rescind the proposed layoffs, the union said in a news release.
Last month, CNE announced plans to cut jobs at Women & Infants and Butler hospitals, as well as Kent Hospital in Warwick, R.I., and VNA of Care New England, the hospital group's home care and hospice division. Layoffs affect clinical and non-clinical staff.
"We're deeply concerned about how these decisions will impact the quality of care and the safety of patients and staff at our hospital," Summer Short, a registered nurse at Butler who works in the intensive treatment unit, said in the union release. "With fewer mental health workers and social workers in our hospital, it means fewer staff on hand to help when patients and their families are in crisis — to provide the individualized care that we take pride in. Our patients deserve the very best, not the bare minimum."
SEIU 1199 New England also cited CNE's latest publicly available IRS filing, from 2014, contending CNE paid three executives more than $5.3 million combined. The union said workers at Tuesday's pickets urged CNE executives to commit to redirecting some executive compensation to patients and staff by refunding $4 million in executive salaries and bonuses.
In response to the pickets, CNE reiterated its financial difficulties. The "activity by members of the SEIU 1199 is not unexpected and presents CNE with another opportunity to inform and educate the community about the dramatic and complex changes in the healthcare landscape contributing to the significant financial challenges we currently face," Jim Beardsworth, CNE system director of communications, said in an emailed statement to Becker's Hospital Review. "As we have said previously, these issues include decreases in patient volume, a worsening payer mix, changing healthcare needs of the population and extremely restrictive reimbursement caps in place through the state health insurance commissioner's office."
Mr. Beardsworth went on to note Women & Infants Hospital reported a loss of $14 million for the first six months of fiscal year 2017, which he said contributed to CNE's combined $40 million system loss for the same six-month period.
In the statement, he also pointed to the difficulty of the layoff decision.
"To be abundantly clear, these reductions while incredibly difficult, began with senior leadership, and have since included managers and staff across the entirety of CNE. This work is not easy but unfortunately, it is necessary. The efforts today by the union fail to practically address the scope and severity of the financial challenges before us, choosing instead to take publicly available financial data out of context," Mr. Beardsworth said. "Sadly, they misconstrue the numbers — lumping base salaries and accelerated retirement benefits together — for the purpose of inflammatory headlines. While this is unfortunate, we must remain focused on our work and not be distracted by these expected tactics, hopeful that we can be more collaborative in the future."