Updated March 12
In the hushed corridors of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital yesterday, it may not have been noticeable how much drama is in the air, but as described by several staff, there is an atmosphere of “shock and disgust” as a number of them have been laid off from the Island’s largest healthcare provider.
It’s unclear exactly how many staffers were laid off, because officials have declined to respond to questions. Still, multiple sources with firsthand knowledge and who have remained anonymous told The Times that somewhere between a dozen and 20 staffers were laid off over the past two months, many of them Islanders.
The Times could not independently verify the total number. Michael Morrison, spokesperson at Mass General Brigham, the parent organization, has not confirmed how many were laid off locally. Those impacted do not appear to be patient-facing workers.
The layoffs, with a first round announced last month and the second round announced on Monday, are part of a consolidation plan across MGB’s hospital system. MGB’s intention is to improve the long-term financial stability of the organization and eliminate redundant roles.
Mass General Brigham CEO Anne Klibanski sent out a letter on Monday morning notifying staff of the second bout of layoffs. According to the Boston Globe’s sources, around 1,500 positions may be cut, out of 82,000 employees across Mass General Brigham’s network.
The details of which hospitals would see those impacts have not been reported, and local hospital officials have deferred all questions to the hospital’s corporate office.
Most of the employees laid off locally worked in the hospital’s finance department, handling tasks including getting insurance referrals and recovering losses from billing errors, according to employees who spoke anonymously.
One employee stated that many of the laid-off workers had families and were “blindsided” by the decision.
The Martha’s Vineyard Hospital website states it is the largest on-Island employer, employing 633 Vineyarders.
Last month’s first round of layoffs was the largest in MGB’s history, primarily cutting managerial and administrative positions. It was part of an effort to shore up a projected $250 million budget shortfall and to restructure the organization. Officials with the hospital network have stated that clinical and patient-facing roles would not be cut.
Another employee at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital stated there was “a lot of displeasure” from laid-off workers with the hospital leadership’s “lack of empathy.”
Laid-off workers were required to sign a separation agreement that prohibited them from disclosing layoff details, according to Vineyard hospital sources. This stipulation was also reported by the newspaper Foster’s Daily Democrat for a New Hampshire hospital in the MGB network.
Nantucket Cottage Hospital has also been hit by the recent layoffs. Earlier this year, the Nantucket Current reported that several high-ranking staff, including the chief nurse and the vice president for community medicine, had been laid off. Foster’s Daily Democrat reported that Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in New Hampshire had laid off staff, and it is the only other hospital in the MGB system where staff cuts have been confirmed by the press, although how many is uncertain.
MGB’s restructuring plan is expected to be completed this month.
Martha’s Vineyard Hospital spokesperson Gregory Mathis referred all questions from The Times to Morrison.
Martha’s Vineyard Hospital board of trustees members Rebecca Haag and Paulo DeOliveira also referred The Times to hospital spokespeople on Tuesday. Other members of the board were not immediately available for comment.
Morrison said he did not have specific numbers for staff cuts. “These actions affect entities across the entire Mass General Brigham system,” he said. He did not confirm or deny if any staff had been cut from Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.
If you have been impacted by the Mass General Brigham layoffs, or know someone who has, send us a note at editor@mvtimes.com or eunki@mvtimes.com.
Why hasn’t there been protests here like the one in Woods Hole regarding people getting laid off? Maybe because layoffs are often needed sometimes in all organizations and I’m thinking the federal government layoffs affect far more workers who do nothing than the MGH staff who may actually show up to work each day.
This is distressing. Our Vineyard hospital reaches out with requests for donations from the community it serves, and in return it needs to practice good communication. Transparency is an essential part of good nonprofit practices, and we’re not seeing it here. Without transparency, donors won’t have the understanding they need about how their contributions are being used. If our hospital wants this community’s support, it needs to engage with us, not circle the wagons and “refer questions” rather than answering clearly and honestly.
I don’t see this as circling the wagons. Questions are referred to MGB, they are responsible for layoffs and they should communicate about it.
BTW I was one of those on the fence about becoming part of the larger network. Sure there are times we might wish for more local control. That said the people who manage and provide our health care are exceptional. Being able to get chemo, dialysis and other services on island saves time, energy and hassles. We are fortunate.
The Mad River Valley in Vermont has has a resident ‘country doctor’ since at least 1790’s. Until tjis year; when the private practice was taken over by UVM, it got ‘too expensive’ to maintain & was shuttered this year. A much larger community and no family doctor…. Nsurance Co’s make medical care too expensive.
Sounds like reality is hitting home. DOGE or DOHE (in these cases) understand that they have seen the end of Biden’s cash giveaways and now they too need to get back to basics. “Basics” is what we Americans used to refer to as the “ABCs”… what’s necessary.
The current administration is gutting our government at every opportunity.
The layoffs that we are seeing now will be followed with hiring of people who have little or no knowledge of the job they will be given.
Do we really want a Trump loyalist as an air-traffic controller? How about for scientists who care for our nuclear arsenal? How about guides in our national parks? Does it really matter if any of those people actually have the knowledge to do the job? Should all civil servants be political appointees?
Those “cash giveaways” were repairing critical infrastructure in our nation, such as bridges on the verge of collapse or water projects so families could bathe their children.
We have thrown the baby out with the bath water.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/30/trump-loyalists-deep-state-blacklist-american-accountability-foundation
Neither MV Hospital nor Mass General are government agencies. These layoffs have zero, zilch, nada, nothing to do with the current administration, “DOGE” or “DOHE”.
Are they not connected to cuts in federal health/aid spending hitting places on Johns Hopkins? https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/johns-hopkins-cuts-staff-trump-usaid-rcna196512. (A serious question I’d love the answer to. It seems not to be related to that but does anyone knows for sure…?)
“Laid-off workers were required to sign a separation agreement that prohibited them from disclosing layoff details” … or what? They’d be fired? They’d get a bad recommendation? Someone held their hands to get them to sign the “separation agreement”? Surely this can’t be legal.
Isabella; if i recll trump sent $1200 to everyone – giveaway? bidens programes were about taking care of all the people. what’s necessary is for people to wake up to what is going on
with our govt.
In the real world polices have consequences and businesses must react, to be substainable a business must pay its bills. In the hospital model they must treat everyone regardless of if they can pay the bill, if a larger percentage of your customer base do not pay their bill the business must make cuts or close down. As Massachusetts residents are discovering is its government policies cost money and as government can tax you to subsidise
these policies, private business make service reductions or close down.
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