Kaiser plans nurse layoffs

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente plans to lay off 42 nurses at two outpatient clinics, attributing the decision to shifting volume patterns and patient care needs, according to July 18 reports from local news outlets. 

The job cuts are set to take effect in 60 days and will affect nurses at clinics in San Rafael and Petaluma, Calif. Kaiser said the number of cuts may be reduced as it goes through the bargaining process with the California Nurses Association, according to a statement sent to Becker’s. 

“At our San Rafael Medical Center, which employs nearly 2,500 staff and physicians, the volume of care in our outpatient settings increased significantly during the pandemic and has now shifted to other settings or locations,” the health system said in a statement to the North Bay Business Journal.  “To match staffing and care needs, we are rebalancing resources.”

The health system notified the CNA of the layoff plans in June, a labor representative with the nursing association told the Business Journal. The proposed cuts are set to affect nurses in numerous specialties, including adult primary care, gastroenterology, pediatrics, general surgery and mental health/psychiatry. 

In a statement shared with Becker’s, Kaiser said it has 400 open nursing positions in the market and plans to work with affected nurses to redeploy them to available positions. 

“We want to bridge impacted employees to the inpatient positions that are closest to where they live,” the statement said. 

Nurses argue the clinics are already understaffed and that any staff reduction would lead to longer patient wait times and increased workloads for existing staff. 

“Eliminating these positions will just increase the wait times for patients, which in turn will increase the amount of patients going to the emergency room that’s already bursting at the seams with patients,” Colleen Gibbons, RN, a nurse in the medical-surgical unit at Kaiser Permanente San Rafael Medical Center, told the Marin Independent Journal. 

Kaiser said the layoffs will not affect patient care and are necessary to meet changing care needs.

“Contrary to union claims, none of these changes will impact the quality of Kaiser Permanente’s patient care and services,” the system said in a statement to Becker’s. “Our members’ care needs have changed since the pandemic, and we need to be there to meet their needs. As a nonprofit health care provider, we have an obligation to spend our members’ money wisely.”