The CEO and COO of New Orleans-based Ochsner Health face questions from a Louisiana senator, who is concerned why nurses were laid off despite system claims of a nurse deficit.
Ochsner Health eliminated 770 positions, or about 2 percent of its workforce, on May 11. In a memo to employees, Ochsner CEO Pete November said affected positions were in management and primarily non-direct patient care roles, with no physicians affected. There was no language in the memo about nurses, specifically.
On May 12, Louisiana state Sen. Gregory Tarver issued a letter to Mr. November and Ochsner COO Mike Hulefeld to express concern about nurses' inclusion in the layoffs, according to local CBS affiliate KSLA.
"It is very disheartening when I hear that nurses are being let go when we have heard from leaders of the Ochsner Health System during our legislative sessions that hospitals are experiencing a SHORTAGE of nurses," Mr. Tarver wrote. "The situation is a bit confusing when registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and family nurse practitioners are being released from their positions, according to my sources."
Mr. Tarver said his office has received "a number of calls from nursing staff that they have been laid off and they were not offered any other position." Mr. Tarver said it appears that some hospital leadership teams "did not follow the protocols" communicated by Mr. November in his memo, which stated that any impacted employees with active clinical credentials would be offered direct patient care roles.
The senator requested that Mr. November and Mr. Hulefeld specify the number of people released from each facility and the job position they held.
An Ochsner spokesperson told Becker's it is working with more than 40 clinical employees who have expressed interest in continuing employment with the health system. Mr. November issued a response May 16 to the senator's inquiry. Below is an excerpt of that response, shared with Becker's:
"As my memo stated on May 10, the workforce reduction impacted management and primarily non-direct patient care roles. For impacted employees who are interested in continuing to work at Ochsner and have active clinical credentials, including supervisors, we began contacting them last Friday to offer a generous incentive package to move from largely administrative roles into full-time frontline clinical roles across our system. We are already working with a number of clinical employees who have expressed interest in continuing their career at Ochsner, and we sincerely hope many more choose to remain with us.
"We are evolving our structure to ensure we continue to be a strong organization with the resources to fulfill our purpose and lead the way for clinical excellence and innovation. This absolutely will not impact our ability to care for our patients and communities. We have multiple layers of nursing leadership and dedicated teams of caregivers at every Ochsner care site as patient care is always our top priority. Our patients and communities can continue to depend on us for the excellent, compassionate care they expect from Ochsner.
"Healthcare providers across America are experiencing a workforce crisis, especially in frontline nursing. We are hopeful that many impacted employees who have been in largely administrative roles will move into fulltime frontline roles, and we continue to recruit for several hundred unfilled frontline nursing roles across our system. We will also continue educating and training the next generation of healthcare workers at Ochsner so that we can continue to serve the patients of our community."