New York City Health + Hospitals plans to cut 1,500 contract registered nurse positions by the second half of 2025.
Currently, the system employs about 1,800 temporary nurses and wants to reduce that number to 330. By the end of 2024, the system expects to drop 58% of its temporary nurses.
In a finance committee meeting, leaders said the system has already spent about $272 million in the first half of this year on contract nurses and has overspent its cash disbursements budget by 6%.
The system has more than 900 contracted nurses who have worked there for years, and leaders plan to convert them to staff via a new salary structure.
In the past, the majority of nurses interested in working at the system had less experience, and the lower pay created significant turnover, Mitchell Katz, MD, the system's president and CEO, said in the report. The new salary structure has created "new buzz" among experienced professionals and leaders hope it will improve retention, he said. Current nursing leaders said they are pleased with the plan as well.