Layoffs continue at Mass General Brigham

A second round of layoffs hit the state's largest health care system this week, after Mass General Brigham laid off its first wave of workers during the week of Feb. 10.

An MGB spokesperson told the News Service Tuesday he was unaware exactly how many total employees were impacted by layoffs, but deferred to Boston Globe reporting that pegged it at about 1,500 positions.

MGB says its "strategic organizational redesign," which primarily involves cutting management and administrative positions, comes as the system grapples with a projected $250 million budget gap over the next two years.

In a message to MGB employees, CEO Dr. Anne Klibanski called Monday the start of "the final step in that reorganization" and said "all planned notifications will occur this week." MGB, the state's largest employer, has a workforce of more than 82,000 people across its network of hospitals and academic medical centers.

"While we will continuously refine our management structures, as we always have, this marks the end of the workforce action that began on February 10th," Klibanski wrote in a message obtained by the News Service.

"This decision was reached by clinical, academic and administrative leaders from across our system after thoughtfully considering the current healthcare landscape and our poor financial performance over the past several years," she continued. "As we look to the future, we will continue to build a culture of resource stewardship and financial sustainability that enables us to withstand the unrelenting pressures facing healthcare systems everywhere and allows us to continue with critical planned and future investments to support our patients, our care teams and our mission."

MGB spokesperson Jennifer Street said the layoffs were "necessary despite years of diligently promoting a culture of responsible resource stewardship and developing initiatives that generate diversified sources of revenue."

Workers losing their jobs will be offered "market competitive severance and benefits," MGB said.

The layoffs mark the latest turmoil for the local health care ecosystem, which last year underwent the Steward Health Care bankruptcy crisis that saw the closures of Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer. Workforce shortages continue to plague the sector, and hospital executives that serve a high share of patients with public insurance fear Medicaid funding cuts that could jeopardize their operations.

Klibanski had first notified MGB employees about the layoffs on Feb. 10, saying the reorganization was focused on non-clinical and non-patient-facing workers. She wrote the layoffs would be finished in March, and an MGB spokesperson told the News Service Tuesday no additional layoffs are planned.

In a fact sheet explaining the layoffs, MGB said it is experiencing "unprecedented and unrelenting pressures" like all health care systems across the country. MGB said those strains involve "operational inefficiencies," namely "duplicative processes and too many administrative layers" that are "further burdening all employees and escalating the cost of care."

MGB said a "limited number" of management and administrative jobs will be "eliminated, consolidated, or rescoped, focusing resources on critical patient-facing and mission-supporting work." The overhaul also affects vacant positions, an MGB spokesperson said.

The system signaled the layoffs will allow MGB to follow through with planned investments for frontline support, new technologies, clinical spaces and workforce, research infrastructure, modernizing facilities like the Longwood campus, and community health programs.

"We all feel a sense of loss when valued colleagues depart," Klibanski wrote Monday. "We remain committed to treating all employees with dignity and respect, especially those directly affected. Together, we are building the strong foundation needed to navigate the challenges ahead and sustain the excellence that has long defined our Mass General Brigham community."