UCI Health rehires critical care workers it laid off in March – Orange County Register

In a rare move, UCI Health has rescinded the layoffs of seven of the 150 workers laid off last month as part of a restructuring of its hospitals across Orange County — and apologized for what it called an oversight.

The University and Professional and Technical Employees-Communications Workers of America said it was notified by UCI Health Human Resources Director Gabe Contreras that the hospital system had reversed course and restored the positions of the union members — all quality improvement healthcare specialists who investigate critical medical incidents when things go wrong in a patient’s health.

A copy of the email obtained by the Southern California News Group says UCI rescinded the layoffs and “sincerely apologize for this oversight.”

Contreras told the union that UCI Health hopes to retain these workers through new positions that have become available as part of its restructuring, said UPTE spokesman Ansel Herz.

“We are glad UCI restored our workers to their positions,” according to an UPTE statement. “However, there is more work to do. UPTE members, as well as workers represented by our union peers at CNA and AFSCME 3299, are still questioning why — at a time when UCI is pursuing aggressive expansion — our public hospital system is acting like a corporate chain. We deserve answers.”

Besides UPTE, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 said 44 of its union members were laid off — including respiratory therapists and patient care technical workers. Hours were cut for another 260 people.

The California Nurses Association claimed that UCI Health laid off 25 registered nurses at Fountain Valley — a move that led to the closure of its pediatric and pediatric intensive care units.

Separate from Fountain Valley, CNA said 10 per diem employees hired on an “as-needed” basis were laid off, 10 others were reassigned to different areas of UCI Health, and hours were reduced for 129 contractual workers.

“As of today, UCI has not rescinded any of our members layoff notices,” according to a statement from the California Nurses Association. “CNA is still in discussions with the University over the layoff impacts to the community and nurses.”

An AFSCME spokesman was not immediately available to comment on whether they’ve been contacted about the rehiring of laid off workers.

According to Herz, the seven rehired workers were placed at Fountain Valley, Lakewood Regional Medical Center and Los Alamitos Medical Center.

These hospitals were among four facilities and outpatient clinics that UCI Health acquired from Tenet Healthcare Corp. for $975 million in early 2024. The transaction also included  Placentia-Linda Hospital.

UCI Health has not responded to questions about whether any layoffs ever happened at the hospital system’s newly opened, 144-bed acute-care specialty hospital on the UCI Health-Irvine medical campus. That facility, which opened in December, hired 970 employees.

A UCI Health spokeswoman could not say where the rehiring took place.

“As part of UCI Health’s systemwide restructuring, specific specialist positions at individual hospital locations were transitioned to system-level roles designed to support and serve multiple sites across our network,” wrote UCI Health in a statement to SCNG. “Affected specialists were given the opportunity to be considered for the newly created system-level positions.”

On April 2, UCI Health wrote SCNG that the two pediatric units at Fountain Valley averaged fewer than three patients daily.

“Given the significant demand for adult patient care, these two units are being transitioned to better align with the community needs and become adult beds,” UCI Health wrote. “This resulted in 26 employed nursing roles being eliminated at UCI Health – Fountain Valley in the pediatric ICU and pediatric floor. We are working with impacted nurses to identify open nursing roles within UCI Health.”

A pediatric intensive care unit provides round-the-clock care for critically ill or injured infants, children and teens. Such a unit is staffed by nurses and others who treat severe infections, breathing difficulties, traumatic injuries or recovery from major surgeries. A pediatric unit provides care for stable or moderately ill children.

“All PICU and pediatric specialty patients have been safely discharged or transferred to specialty care facilities in the region,” according to UCI Health’s statement last week. “UCI Health would never divert patients in need.”

UCI Health employs 14,200 workers and serves 5.6 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeastern Los Angeles County.