Members of the union representing nurses and support staff stood outside the University of Vermont Medical Center rebuking the health network's announcement Tuesday that nearly 200 layoffs will occur at the hospital. North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley was at the rally.
In his letter Tuesday notifying employees of system-wide layoffs and organizational changes, UVM Health Network CEO Dr. Stephen Leffler wrote “...our health system is facing a major budget shortfall, and we’re relying on our savings to pay the bills. That can’t continue....The reality is that we can’t meet our expense-reduction mandates without reducing our workforce.”
The workforce reductions will affect 199 positions, although 55 new roles will be created, meaning 144 people will lose their jobs. Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals President Nicole DiVita noted that contract negotiations are ongoing with the hospital and their priority has been assuring safe staffing levels.
“That’s why we were shocked and horrified to hear about the over 100 positions eliminated at the medical center. Our members do not have the capacity to absorb these cuts. These are short-sighted cuts. If the hospital is serious about fiscal sustainability, they need to partner with our unions to champion systemic reform.”
The cuts include the elimination of the Baird 3 Unit, a 30-bed general medicine unit. Nurse Bridgett Mobbs has worked on the unit for about 3 years.
“When is UVMMC going to start caring about the patients rather than the amount of money that is being put into their pockets?”
Baird 3 nurse Kellianna Bristol is now uncertain about her future.
“For one I don’t know where I’m going to be come November, where I’ll work. And of course not expecting something like this I had a lot of plans on Baird 3. I was currently working on getting my Medcer certification. And I feel like it’s still sinking in that I need to find a new job.”
Co-worker Katya Lewis said the elimination of their unit was unexpected.
“You know I don’t know where I’m going to be working come November. I bought a house recently, a lot of us did, thinking we would have jobs for the foreseeable future. And then also a lot of us say that Baird 3 is like our second family and having to say goodbye to all these lovely coworkers that I’ve formed relationships with, it’s very distressing.”
Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals bargaining team member Melissa Lavallee acknowledged similar cutbacks by the health network in June.
“Similar numbers of non-unionized folks. This time it’s hit our bargaining units really hard. And I don’t think we lost 50 nurses last time. And just even saying that out loud sounds so terrible.”
Hospitals across the country are struggling with costs. On the same day the Burlington-based hospital network announced cuts, the Dartmouth Health system in New Hampshire announced that 124 employees will lose their jobs and 303 open positions at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Southern Region will not be filled. Dartmouth Health cited patient revenues being outpaced by a 12% increase in operating expenses and that “insurance companies are paying less and taking longer to pay.” Lavallee says the local cuts are a microcosm of what’s happening regionally and nationally.
“We know UVM isn’t special in this regard. Hospitals across the country, even before the Big Beautiful Bill started going into effect, were in very tight straights post-COVID. They were used to getting a lot of financial funding from the government and that tap got shut off. But we are watching the collapse of the for-profit health care system in real time. To see the cuts at Dartmouth were just horrifying. Four hundred positions is just enormous for a community and health care center of that size. And we’re going to continue to see it.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amanda Janoo told union members that the layoffs are part of a nationwide trend.
“These layoffs are a wake-up call. This is bigger than just one hospital because we also just saw Dartmouth Hitchcock, for example, going through a similar round of layoffs. So this is bigger than UVM. This is bigger than Vermont. We have to recognize that our health care system is fundamentally broken.”
The union includes 2,200 support staff, 1,100 technical unit members and about 3,300 nurses.
The UVM Health Network projects $300 million in reduced revenues “over the next few years” and the latest cuts will reduce expenses by about $16.8 million.
