Mass General Brigham begins second round of large-scale layoffs
She added that the organization would treat all employees with dignity and respect: 'We all feel a sense of loss when valued colleagues depart.' A spokesperson added that all laid-off workers would receive benefits coverage and market-competitive severance packages.
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The cuts in workforce have added to the uncertainty that many employees
have voiced in recent weeks.
'Who is going to do that work? Are you going to dump it on people already buckling under?' said Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. 'Any organization has to be mindful of who they are employing and is it efficient and worthwhile. But you can't just lay off 1,200 people. These people were all doing something … They were helping with the team-based medicine we all need to practice to make it doable.'
With such a sprawling organization including 26 hospitals and other entities spread across 400 locations, it is difficult to assess where layoffs were targeted, or even how many people it will ultimately affect. The organization has repeatedly declined to specify final numbers. Given how disperse the layoffs have been and occurring in multiple waves, the reductions have not
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However sources suggest approximately 1,500 positions will ultimately be affected, out of 82,000 employees. Similarly, the expense reduction is looking to save approximately 2 percent of MGB's salary and benefits costs.
Executives have previously said the reductions would be primarily focused on administrative and management levels, and would not affect front-line clinical workers or staff that supportpatient-facing care. Two doctors who help oversee the care of patients involved in clinical trials, though, said
'You just don't know who is going to be laid off,' Grinspoon said. 'It hurts morale to have this Damocles [sword] hanging over your head.'
Frustrations go far beyond the disruptions and uncertainty of the layoffs. Many physicians are burned out, so much so that nearly 300 of MGB's primary care physicians in November signed documents to unionize. Frustrations range from the massive demands placed on primary care physicians
'
time to the increasing 'corporatization' of medicine, in which front
-
line physicians feel they have less of a voice.
The layoffs have added to the overall chaos, Grinspoon said. Consolidation is stepping on toes, as longtime department heads have had to fight for the job they've held for decades. Other employees don't have faith that integration will make things better because for the last several years, things have gotten progressively harder. Doctors make less but are expected to care for more patients, and there is far more work to do for each patient.
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'No one has faith in leadership,' Grinspoon said, adding: 'You can't do (integration) if most of your staff don't trust or believe in you in the first place.'
Leadership has pressed that the integration is necessary to improve patient care and streamline operations across its 12 hospitals. A spokesperson added Monday that the reductions would enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and maximize support for frontline clinicians.
'This decision is necessary despite years of diligently promoting a culture of responsible resource stewardship and developing initiatives that generate diversified sources of revenue,' said Jennifer Street, a spokesperson for Mass General Brigham.
Consolidation efforts have been underway for years, setting out a transformation of what had been a collection of often-competitive hospitals to one of a unified system. The effort began in 2019, with a rebranding from what used to be Partners HealthCare to Mass General Brigham. Since, leadership has slowly been rethinking jobs and eliminating roles through attrition.
The signs of financial challenges have started to appear in reported financials. Though the organization has posted positive operating margins in
The system's investment portfolio helped propel the bottom line to $281.7 million in net margin, a figure that experts have pointed to as a marker of resiliency. But earnings on that money are largely either restricted by donors to certain uses or earmarked to capital projects, executives have previously said.
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Jessica Bartlett can be reached at
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Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Boston Globe
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Boston Globe
31-07-2025
- Boston Globe
CVS and MGB want to collaborate to provide primary care at MinuteClinic in drug stores
Advertisement The clinics would join MGB's network of providers, which means they could refer patients to MGB hospitals, specialists, diagnostic services, and laboratories if they needed follow-up care. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Most MinuteClinic sites currently offer limited services, such as diagnosing strep throat or urinary tract infections or providing vaccinations for COVID-19, influenza, shingles, and other preventable illnesses. But in the past year, CVS began to offer broader adult primary care to members of health insurer Aetna, a subsidiary of CVS, in nearly a dozen states. Now MinuteClinic is poised to make its first foray into primary care in Massachusetts, assuming the state commission clears the way. The commission is reviewing the proposal to ensure it wouldn't raise the cost or hurt the quality of health care. 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Scientific American
02-07-2025
- Scientific American
To Save Patients from Extreme Heat, a Hospital Is Turning to AI
CLIMATEWIRE | When extreme heat hits the Boston area, emergency departments are packed with people who are dehydrated, experiencing kidney or heart problems, or are having heat cramps. Now a health care system that serves 2.5 million patients across Massachusetts is turning to artificial intelligence for help. 'The stress of the heat exacerbates those conditions, and we'll see a 10 percent jump of people in the emergency department not just for heat illness, but also weakness or syncope or other conditions due to the heat,' said Paul Biddinger, chief preparedness and continuity officer at Mass General Brigham, the nonprofit academic health system that is working on a new alert system to warn people about the dangers of heat waves. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. In February, MGB was one of five applicants to join a Sustainability Accelerator run by IBM. The program seeks to help communities facing environmental and economic stress through technology. It had received more than 100 proposals for how to use AI to advance climate sustainability and resilience. The idea is simple: Use AI to comb through electronic health records to find patients who have health conditions or take medications that might make them particularly vulnerable to heat. The AI program would warn them when a heat wave is coming and tell patients how to protect themselves so they don't end up in an emergency room. The tool would include security features to protect patient health information. Ideally, the combination of personalized information, real-time heat data, and "actionable messages" will help empower patients to protect themselves. 'We think patients will pay more attention if it is their doctor, their hospital saying, 'Hey, you're at risk and here's what to do,' than if they just see on the news that it will be hot tomorrow,' Biddinger said. Heat kills an estimated 2,300 people every year in the United States, more than any other type of extreme weather event, and results in the hospitalization of thousands of others. Those numbers are expected to increase as climate change turbocharges temperatures, with one estimate calculating that emergency rooms could be inundated with an additional 235,000 visitors each summer. The same report, by the Center for American Progress, estimated that health care costs related to extreme heat would amount to $1 billion annually. Mass General Brigham offers training for doctors and nurses about how climate change could affect patients. Some particularly vulnerable patients with complex or overlapping medical conditions are assigned case workers to discuss those risks. 'Just as we want our patients to control their blood sugar if they have diabetes or not be exposed to poor air quality if they have a respiratory disease, trying to help them protect themselves from heat by communicating when they are at high risk is a health care responsibility, and we are trying to do better,' Biddinger said. But proactively warning patients is a tall order for humans to do on their own. Patients with complicated medical conditions are assigned care managers, who follow patients more closely and will contact them before a heat wave strikes to 'support their health.' But there's not enough staff to reach everyone who has a heart or kidney condition, or those whose homes might not have air conditioning. The AI program is still being developed, but Biddinger said he envisions it having a chatbot function, so patients can ask questions when they receive an alert. 'Our primary care doctors are so overwhelmed these days, and we don't want them to be stuck on hold waiting for their doctor when we can use AI to help them identify cooling centers or public places with air conditioning where they can go to stay cool,' he said. The AI alert system is meant to be a pilot program so the technology can be developed with IBM over the next two years. If it works, it could be shared with other hospitals. 'This is not being developed as a profits-driven product. It's meant to be a service to the community that health centers across the country could use to support their patients, too,' Biddinger said.
