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St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan began laying off more than 300 workers on Friday and asked other employees for temporary pay cuts of 10 percent to 25 percent in an effort to stave off closing.
Hospital officials said the 300 workers who got layoff notices included 32 medical residents, managers at all levels and members of 1199 S.E.I.U., the hospital union, in jobs like dietary work, housekeeping and transporting.
The hospital, in Greenwich Village, also asked all workers for pay cuts lasting 120 days. Executives and doctors in leadership positions were asked to take cuts of 25 percent, and others were asked to take 20 percent cuts, officials said.
Unionized workers, including nurses, were asked to take cuts of 10 percent to 15 percent and were voting on whether to accept them, administrators said.
The cutbacks were part of a restructuring effort to keep the 160-year-old hospital, which is $700 million in debt and losing $5 million to $10 million a month, from having to close. Employees said that by agreeing to cutbacks they were also trying to show good faith to the state and the banks that have lent the hospital money to keep it going for about a month during the restructuring.
Bruce Gershner, 53, a registered nurse, said he had voted to accept a 15 percent cut because he would rather have 85 percent of his salary than zero, and he wanted to show that workers cared about keeping the hospital open.
"This is like my second home," Mr. Gershner said Friday outside the hospital. "People are in tears at this point. You're just on pins and needles waiting to find out what happens next."
He said that he walked around the neighborhood and saw people he helped treat, and that it was crushing to think that not only his job but also a neighborhood institution with a lot of history behind it could be lost.
Supervisors gave letters to workers who were being laid off.
Joseph Gerard, 38, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a technician and air-conditioning engineer at the hospital for the past 18 months, got one such envelope. "They gave me a letter," he said, adding that he felt bad not only for himself, but also because "there's a lot of history here."
Arthur Y. Webb, the hospital's chief of operations, confirmed Friday that six programs — sleep medicine, endocrinology, pathology, ophthalmology, renal medicine and neurology — would be closed by the end of the month. But he said the hospital's well-known H.I.V., psychiatric and community clinics were fully operating, reversing a decision to stop taking new patients.
The hospital, which is the last Catholic general hospital in New York City, has been looking for a partner to bolster its financial position and keep it open.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/nyregion/13vincents.html
Comment: I bet some of the final year residents/fellows already had jobs lined up. Now it would seem to appear that there are going to be programs that are closing 4 months shy of graduation - OUCH! I feel bad for these poor residents/fellows.
Hospital officials said the 300 workers who got layoff notices included 32 medical residents, managers at all levels and members of 1199 S.E.I.U., the hospital union, in jobs like dietary work, housekeeping and transporting.
The hospital, in Greenwich Village, also asked all workers for pay cuts lasting 120 days. Executives and doctors in leadership positions were asked to take cuts of 25 percent, and others were asked to take 20 percent cuts, officials said.
Unionized workers, including nurses, were asked to take cuts of 10 percent to 15 percent and were voting on whether to accept them, administrators said.
The cutbacks were part of a restructuring effort to keep the 160-year-old hospital, which is $700 million in debt and losing $5 million to $10 million a month, from having to close. Employees said that by agreeing to cutbacks they were also trying to show good faith to the state and the banks that have lent the hospital money to keep it going for about a month during the restructuring.
Bruce Gershner, 53, a registered nurse, said he had voted to accept a 15 percent cut because he would rather have 85 percent of his salary than zero, and he wanted to show that workers cared about keeping the hospital open.
"This is like my second home," Mr. Gershner said Friday outside the hospital. "People are in tears at this point. You're just on pins and needles waiting to find out what happens next."
He said that he walked around the neighborhood and saw people he helped treat, and that it was crushing to think that not only his job but also a neighborhood institution with a lot of history behind it could be lost.
Supervisors gave letters to workers who were being laid off.
Joseph Gerard, 38, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a technician and air-conditioning engineer at the hospital for the past 18 months, got one such envelope. "They gave me a letter," he said, adding that he felt bad not only for himself, but also because "there's a lot of history here."
Arthur Y. Webb, the hospital's chief of operations, confirmed Friday that six programs — sleep medicine, endocrinology, pathology, ophthalmology, renal medicine and neurology — would be closed by the end of the month. But he said the hospital's well-known H.I.V., psychiatric and community clinics were fully operating, reversing a decision to stop taking new patients.
The hospital, which is the last Catholic general hospital in New York City, has been looking for a partner to bolster its financial position and keep it open.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/nyregion/13vincents.html
Comment: I bet some of the final year residents/fellows already had jobs lined up. Now it would seem to appear that there are going to be programs that are closing 4 months shy of graduation - OUCH! I feel bad for these poor residents/fellows.
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