CEO blames recession and funding cuts for the reduction in union and non-union jobs; seen as part of effort to transform itself into a community teaching hospital.

by Barbara Benson

Citing “severe financial shortfalls” stemming from the recession and a series of significant funding cuts, St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan announced Tuesday that it is laying off 180 people Tuesday. The cuts include union and non-union jobs, as well as managerial and patient-care positions.

Henry Amoroso, president and chief executive of the 3,800-employee Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, said in a statement, “The delivery of healthcare is changing in this city, state and country, and to ensure that St. Vincent’s 160-year healthcare mission continues, tough choices have to be made now.” He called the decision to make layoffs “painful” but added that St. Vincent’s will “transform itself into a community teaching hospital that will be more efficient in delivering essential clinical services and graduate medical education.”

While healthcare hiring nationally continues to be strong, several New York hospitals have resorted to layoffs as a means of coping with state and federal cuts in reimbursement. In early November, the Greater New York Hospital Association predicted that if all of Gov. David Paterson’s proposed health-budget cuts had been made, 12,000 hospital, nursing home and home care jobs would have been eliminated. The final version of the budget, however, did not include the worst of the proposed cuts.

“You can’t cut healthcare seven times in two years and not expect there to be consequences,” a hospital association spokesman said. “We have said time and again that hospitals have no room left to absorb additional cuts, and we’re deeply concerned that what happened at Saint Vincent’s today is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Since emerging from bankruptcy several years ago, Saint Vincent’s has aggressively been trying to cut back expenses and boost revenues. In this past year, the system recruited a number of surgeons who contributed to a nearly 5% increase of inpatient surgery in the past 12 months. It also formed a new Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, with new surgeons. And it is sharing a $25 million state grant with NYU Langone Medical Center to work on clinical affiliations.