Weeks after announcing it will shut down inpatient care and surgical services at its Newfane site, Eastern Niagara Hospital has filed a layoff notice that will impact 185 workers.
According to a WARN notice filed July 17 with the state Department of Labor, the hospital will begin layoffs during a two-week period beginning Oct. 13.
Plans to restructure the 63-bed Newfane hospital include keeping open the emergency department and some outpatient services, including dialysis, laboratory blood draw, physical and occupational therapy, X-ray and most radiology services, while moving other operations to its Lockport hospital site.
Initially, the hospital said the changes would lead to the loss of about 60 jobs. The Newfane site currently accounts for about 123 full-time equivalents (FTE) of the hospital’s total 560 positions. Bumping rights from employees covered by several union groups will lead to some employees taking jobs at the Lockport site based on seniority and other bargaining agreement rights.
Workers at the hospital are covered by thePublic Employees Federation, AFL-CIO, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and the NYS Nurses Association.
In addition to the two hospital sites, Eastern Niagara Hospital operates a nursing home in Newfane as well as ambulatory surgery and imaging sites in the town of Lockport. An urgent care facility is under development in Lockport as well.
Hospital officials warned several months ago economic issues were hurting the system. Community members and officials in the towns surrounding the Newfane site have been highly critical of the process from the start, charging hospital officials and board members with withholding information and poor communication about the process. A Facebook page has been set up to save the hospital and share information about their research and efforts.
Though current financial data was not available, Eastern Niagara Hospital finished the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years with net assets of $3.8 million. Operating income has remained in the black with the hospital finishing 2012 with a $1.2 million surplus on $72 million in revenue, according to federal tax filings.
CEO Clare Haar said admissions and volume are down significantly in Newfane. She pointed to advances in technology and drugs that keep people out of the hospital, while policies by insurers and government payers are causing changes in how patients are classified while receiving care, and how hospitals are paid for that care.
Eastern Niagara Hospital was created through the merger of Lockport Memorial Hospital with Inter-Community Memorial Hospital in Newfane after a 2006 mandate by the State’s Commission on Health Care Facilities for the 21st Century, also known as the Berger Commission.
With the WARN notice filed, the hospital will next require approvals from the state Department of Health before closing any programs or shifting services.
Date: July 18, 2014