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Boston Globe

Mass General Brigham said layoffs wouldn't affect patient care. Some disagree.

They include six full-time chaplains — at least half of whom worked directly with patients and families facing health crises and end-of-life decisions. Also laid off: the director of domestic violence programs at Brigham and Women's Hospital who counseled patients who had survived human trafficking and other abuse; and an employee in Massachusetts General Hospital's Living Tobacco-Free program who helped hundreds of patients quit smoking each year. Advertisement Tara Deonauth, a board-certified chaplain and graduate of Harvard Divinity School who served as spiritual care manager at Faulkner Hospital, said she was 'shocked and heartbroken' when she was laid off on March 10. 'I could not have worked more closely with patients,' said Deonauth, who estimated she saw about 25 patients a week and spent up to an hour with each, listening to stories of grief and hopelessness. Most were in intensive care or a secure psychiatric unit for patients at risk for harming themselves or others. Deonauth said she was 'on call 24-7″ and responded to requests in the middle of the night, including arranging for a Catholic priest to deliver last rites. A number of employees who were laid off signed confidentiality agreements and declined to comment out of fear of jeopardizing severance packages. However, the Boston Globe confirmed the layoffs from co-workers who kept their jobs. Advertisement Jessica Pastore, a spokesperson for MGB, said the job cuts focused on nonclinical managers and administrators and that Klibanski never said all employees who worked with patients would be excluded from layoffs. Individual hospitals, she said, made decisions 'to ensure there would be no negative impacts to patient care.' Six weeks ago, MGB announced it would make Mass General Brigham announced the most layoffs in its history in February. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Klibanski said in her email the system would streamline its administration by making cuts 'focused on non-clinical and non-patient facing roles' and complete The Globe MGB declined to specify how many people have been laid off. Among those who have been especially hard hit were MGB's chaplains. The system laid off two of its nine chaplains at MGH and the hospital's head of spiritual care, the Rev. Donna Blagdan, who oversaw them and is a board-certified chaplain. She declined to comment, but multiple remaining MGB chaplains confirmed her departure. By the end of August, the system also plans to end the Clinical Pastoral Education program at MGH, which for about 90 years trained people to work as chaplains at hospitals, prisons, fire departments, and other settings inside and outside of Massachusetts. The program is said to be the first at a general hospital in the country. Advertisement MGB is laying off Rabbi Shulamit Izen, director of the program, in August when the last five students complete their training. The program will then close, according to multiple current hospital employees and graduates of the program. Izen declined to comment. During the yearlong program, trainees work 27 hours a week as chaplains 'in residency' at MGH, counseling sick or dying patients, helping families navigate the decision to take loved ones off life support, and comforting employees struggling with traumatic situations at the hospital. Jonathan DeWeese, a psychiatric nurse practitioner and psychotherapist in Cambridge who completed the program a decade ago, said he worked overnight shifts, supporting patients and families as they grappled with terminal illnesses and agonizing loss. 'Doctors don't have the time or the skill to sit with the distressed family that just lost their teenager or 20-year-old son in a car accident,' said DeWeese, who serves as an adviser to the program. 'That's one of the many scenarios in which a chaplain is really needed.' Meanwhile, Brigham laid off one of its two educators of chaplains at that hospital's residency program who also worked directly with patients, according to the Rev. Jennie Gould, the remaining educator and a chaplain. Ruth Delfiner, a part-time chaplain at MGH, said the job cuts by MGB 'shows their absolute lack of sympathy for what it is that we do.' 'These are programs which they put in place for appearances, but when they're concerned about the bottom line, they're going to be the first to go,' she said. Pastore, the MGB spokesperson, said 'patients and families will continue to have access to chaplains from a variety of religious backgrounds and especially in instances of emergent care, which is available every day of the week, at all times.' She also said the system is merging MGH's and Brigham's chaplain residency programs. Advertisement With the layoffs, Gould said she doubted Brigham will be able to have a chaplain on site at all times, as it had before, or be able to respond to every cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, and request by relatives of deceased patients to view bodies in a room near the morgue. A photo shows Tara Deonauth, a chaplain who was recently laid off, with Faulkner ICU Clinical Leader Ellen McCarthy, left, who nominated her for an I Care Award when Tara worked in the hospital. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff Multiple employees said Loftus provided direct therapy services to nearly a dozen victims of human trafficking. Loftus also provided training on how to care for survivors of trauma and violence to more than 900 front-line clinicians last year alone. About 100 health care providers were so alarmed by Loftus's dismissal that they signed a petition urging leadership to rehire her. 'While her official title is Clinical Program Director, Jessica provides direct patient care to hundreds of patients throughout our system,' said the letter. Loftus said patient care 'inevitably suffers' when clinicians are 'seen as job titles rather than humans.' Pastore, the MGB spokesperson, said Loftus had a 'management role that was consolidated from two managers managing a group of social workers down to one manager. This was a reduction of a management layer, not the elimination of a clinical care role.' In response, Loftus said, 'They can classify it however they want, but my role in our human trafficking program was direct patient care.' Advertisement MGB has also laid off both employees of the Mass General Living Tobacco-Free program, which the health system decided last year to end in 2025, Pastore confirmed. One of the employees was a tobacco treatment specialist who helped several hundred smokers a year try to quit, according to a staffer at a community health center and another person familiar with the program. Both sources insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. The other laid-off employee was the program manager. The program operated at community health centers in Charlestown, Chelsea, Revere, and Everett, and featured one-on-one coaching, support groups, yoga, and other tools. Pastore said there are still multiple tobacco treatment programs in Boston run by other groups. Dr. Mark Eisenberg, who worked for 37 years as a primary care physician at MGH Charlestown and now works part time helping patients with addictions at the hospital, said he often referred patients to Tobacco-Free. 'It was a great resource for a physician who didn't have the time during a 15-minute appointment to effectively counsel patients,' he said. Dr. Michael Barnett, a primary care physician at Brigham and associate professor of health policy and management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said he was dismayed by the layoffs of staffers who worked with patients, but he wasn't particularly surprised. 'As primary care doctors, we know that MGB doesn't invest in interventions that improve public health unless they generate huge profits,' said Barnett, Advertisement In March, Pastore did not respond to Barnett's criticism. Gould, the Brigham chaplain, said layoffs of employees who dealt directly with patients was short-sighted and often affected workers with relatively modest salaries. 'Look,' she said, 'chaplains are not breaking the MGB bank.' Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at