Beth Israel Lahey Health announces layoffs

Beth Israel Lahey Health, the organization behind more than a dozen New England hospitals, said Friday that hospitals in its system are laying off an unspecified number of workers.

A system spokesperson declined to specify which facilities were losing jobs, or what type of positions they were eliminating.

“Like health care providers across the country, BILH is facing significant cost increases, a limited reimbursement environment, and changing trends in patient care,” the spokesperson wrote in a e-mail. “At the local level, hospital leaders have identified opportunities to restructure staff roles, including eliminating some positions, to better meet local health care needs in a sustainable manner.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association confirmed that Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester and Beverly Hospital have cut a handful of union nurses, although laid-off nurses are eligible for other positions vacant. The union also confirmed that 22 mid-level nurse managers at Plymouth Hospital had been made redundant; these employees were not represented by the union.

Beth Israel Lahey Health – a system formed from a merger in 2019 – oversees more than 2,300 beds at 14 hospitals in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and New England Baptist Hospital in Boston and Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. . According to its website, it employs 39,000 people.

For the nine months ending June 2024, Beth Israel Lahey reported an operating loss of $110 million – meaning a shortfall in its operating revenue to cover its expenses – compared to a loss of $141 million over the same period the previous year, according to the system’s most recent quarterly financial report.

For the For the hospitals’ fiscal year ending September 2022, Beth Israel Lahey hospitals accounted for 13.5% of the state’s emergency department visits and nearly a fifth of all discharges, according to the Center for Information and Health. analysis of the state’s health.

The job cuts come amid a major shake-up of the health system as it embarks on construction of a new 300-bed cancer care center worth 1.68 billion dollars, with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, following the latter’s breakup with its longtime partner, Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Jessica Bartlett of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Dana Gerber can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her @danagerber6.