\u201cI know that some decisions and changes will be difficult, particularly when they affect colleagues, teams, long-standing roles and programs that have been important parts of our organizations,\u201d the email went on. \u201cAs all healthcare systems are changing, so must we.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The letter didn\u2019t say whether programs will be cut or explain how roles of employees will change. It also comes as the nurses union at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital prepares for another strike scheduled<\/a> to begin Nov. 12. <\/p>\n The lack of specifics drew swift criticism from one of the leaders of a union of primary care doctors at MGB.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need transparency,\u201d said Dr. Michael Barnett, a primary care physician at Brigham and one of the organizers of the primary care doctors\u2019 union. \u201cMGB vaguely suggesting change must occur serves to only create fear and distrust. Leadership is not telling us what they really think.\u201d<\/p>\n Another MGB primary care doctor, who requested not to be named in order to protect their job, said the email filled them with a sense of foreboding. <\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like this is a harbinger of yet more that\u2019s going to be piled on primary care,\u201d the doctor said. \u201cMy worst fear is that they\u2019re going to make it so intolerable that we all quit.\u201d <\/p>\n MGB did not respond to a request for comment. An MGB executive told the Globe last week that cost-cutting efforts would likely last for two years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are changing how we work,\u201d Klibanski\u2019s letter added. \u201cDecisions should be made by the people with the expertise and knowledge closest to the work, informed by evidence \u2014 not anecdote \u2014 as well as outcomes and frontline insight, with less bureaucracy and fewer barriers to collaboration and improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n On Oct. 13, the health system began making layoffs in an effort to boost its financial performance, Jessica Pastore, an MGB spokesperson, has said. It marked the second time in less than two years that the richest hospital system in the state had laid off workers. <\/p>\n So far, MGB has only mentioned a couple of workforce reductions and program changes. Last month, it confirmed that Mass Eye and Ear will end general pediatric inpatient admissions to its 10th floor unit by Jan. 1. Such patients can be treated at other Mass General Brigham for Children locations. <\/p>\n Some pediatricians at Mass Eye and Ear were affected by the move, although MGB said they have been offered positions elsewhere in the system. <\/p>\n MGB also plans to sharply cut a program that enables patients to receive hospital-like care at home, according to an internal document obtained by the Globe<\/a>.<\/p>\n The confidential memo to hospital leaders last month said that MGB\u2019s nine-year-old Home Hospital program has been losing $30 million a year on average over the last three years, \u201creinforcing the need to evolve the model for greater financial sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n This month, MGB plans to cut the program so that it will eventually treat no more than 30 patients, according to the document. In August 2024, the program had the capacity to treat 70 patients at home, making it the largest home hospital program in the country, according to a news release at the time<\/a>. <\/p>\n The cuts to the program would result in job losses, the internal document said, but the system would try to find new positions for affected clinicians.<\/p>\n The program will be refocused to support Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham, which need more bed capacity, while its clinical operations will be indefinitely paused at Salem Hospital, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and Brigham and Women\u2019s Faulkner Hospital, the memo said.<\/p>\n The move upset Ann Scott, a 93-year-old retired Bates College music professor who lives in Lexington. She said she has used Home Hospital twice in recent years when she was recovering at home from a skin infection and from pneumonia after initially undergoing treatment at Newton-Wellesley. <\/p>\n \u201c[MGB] always said it was less expensive to do this in my home than to keep me there in the hospital so I don\u2019t understand their rationale,\u201d Scott said last week. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Home Base Program, a 17-year-old partnership between the Red Sox Foundation and Mass. General Hospital that treats veterans with traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder, laid off several employees late last month, according to one of them.<\/p>\n Cliff Brown, a technology program manager, said he had worked at the program for seven years before he was informed on Oct. 20 that his position was being eliminated.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, no one ever wants to get laid off,\u201d said Brown, 36, but he said the timing was good because he expects to earn a master\u2019s in business administration by the end of the year.<\/p>\n He said Home Base employs about 150 people and that the program overall is not in jeopardy. <\/p>\n Pastore has declined to say how many job cuts have taken place or how many are planned but said that division and department heads have been told to cut their budgets. She didn\u2019t specify by how much.<\/p>\n A high-ranking MGB executive, whom the system connected with the Globe to provide background information, said last week that the number of layoffs will hinge on how much money administrators can save through cuts and consolidations elsewhere over the next two years.<\/p>\n The goal, said the executive, was for MGB to have an operating margin, or money made from its core work of taking care of patients, of about 1.5 percent of its operating revenue, or $300 million, by Sept. 30, 2028. In fiscal 2025, MGB reported an operating margin of $59 million, or 0.3 percent of operating revenue.<\/p>\n That\u2019s lower than its peers nationwide, according to MGB. The health system compares itself to more than a dozen other academic medical centers whose median operating margin was roughly 2 percent since 2024, according to an MGB chart obtained by the Globe.<\/p>\n Pastore said in a recent email that MGB is trying to achieve savings through a variety of approaches including by consolidating leases and renegotiating a contract with a vendor.<\/p>\n \u201cOur preference is to save through non-labor means wherever possible,\u201d she wrote. \u201cClosing the gap will still take a multi-year effort that touches every part of how we operate.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full letter below:<\/p>\n Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com<\/a>. Marin Wolf can be reached at marin.wolf@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI know that some decisions and changes will be difficult, particularly when they affect colleagues, teams, long-standing roles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500,518200],"class_list":["post-951439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-mgh-mass-general-brigham-president"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}