The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) just confirmed they will be laying off hundreds of employees.
In a statement to abc27 news, a spokesperson with UPMC confirmed that the healthcare system would be laying off 200 employees, noting that this series of layoffs will only affect workers who are not in clinical or member-facing roles.
According to UPMC, there will also be a reduction of 300 open positions that were not in active recruitment.
UPMC was not clear on what specific departments and/or locations would be affected by this layoff.
UPMC’s full statement reads as follows:
“As we regularly reassess our services to ensure they match the needs of our patients and members, limited reductions (~200 of UPMC’s 100,000 employees and ~300 open positions that were not in active recruitment) are occurring, primarily among those who are not in clinical or member-facing roles. UPMC is providing enhanced severance pay and benefits coverage for affected employees.”
This decision to layoff 200 employees comes just two years after the Pennsylvania-based healthcare giant had initiated the layoff of about 1,000 of its employees; a decision that UPMC said at the time was due to a “still-evolving, post-pandemic marketplace,” that is affecting the healthcare industry.
Just months after the approximately 1,000 worker layoff, UPMC then initiated another layoff of about 100 employees. At that time, the reason given for the layoff was to “improve organizational efficiencies and eliminate redundancies”
Following UPMC’s confirmation of this new series of layoffs, SEIU Healthcare PA, a healthcare union comprised of over 25,000 nurses and caregivers, responded to the decision.
“This latest round of job cuts for 200 workers and 300 open positions comes after about 1,100 cuts two years ago,” SEIU Healthcare PA said in part. “In that previous round of cuts, we lost many experienced and valued clinicians with roles in direct patient care and nurse education. When UPMC reduces staff, those duties often then fall on nurses when we already do not have enough time with our patients to provide the level of care we believe in.”
According to UPMC’s website, they are headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., and currently boast more than 40 hospitals and 800 doctors’ offices and outpatient centers, while employing more than 100,000 workers.
Source – https://www.abc27.com/news/upmc-laying-off-hundreds-of-workers-heres-what-we-know/