{"id":206355,"date":"2026-03-05T23:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206355\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T23:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:46:13","slug":"after-years-of-making-more-money-than-ever-usc-gutted-keck-medicine-annenberg-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206355\/","title":{"rendered":"After years of making more money than ever, USC gutted Keck Medicine \u2013 Annenberg Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being laid off from his position as a special education teacher in 2011, Michael Simonton decided to become a registered nurse. Where he wanted to work: Keck Medicine of USC.<\/p>\n

Simonton said he and his coworkers chose Keck to work with the best nurses in their profession, \u201ctaking care of the sickest people.\u201d He has worked for the university for nearly 12 years and is currently an intensive care unit nurse at Norris Cancer Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something that feels really, really good about being able to take care of those people and to do good things for them, to save, to help them get better and to see them walk out of the hospital,\u201d Simonton said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

Recent cuts to healthcare options and mass layoffs led Simonton to believe that USC is deeply prioritizing revenues over its employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cUSC is really good at creating a facade. They\u2019re excellent salesmen. They\u2019re good at promoting themselves,\u201d Simonton said. \u201cRight now, I believe that they\u2019re really focused on maximizing their profits.\u201d<\/p>\n

USC\u2019s healthcare success is not just lucrative. It is the university\u2019s largest source of income. In 2025, the university reported almost $3.2 billion in revenues for healthcare services. According to the USC 2025 Financial Report<\/a>, those services accounted for about 42% of the university\u2019s total revenues.<\/p>\n

\"visualization\"\/<\/p>\n

When accounting for expenses, the combined revenue surplus of USC\u2019s hospitals in 2024 totaled over $500 million, according to its tax forms<\/a>. The entire USC healthcare system has reported a surplus for three straight years.<\/p>\n

Despite this success, the university has faced internal criticism in recent years over the treatment of its healthcare staff.<\/p>\n

Nurses say working conditions have suffered, go on strike<\/p>\n

Registered nurses from Keck and Norris began a weeklong strike<\/a> Feb. 19 amid failed negotiations with the university over their healthcare contracts. This year, many nurses lost access to a no-premium healthcare option that allowed them to choose providers at hospitals over USC providers with out-of-pocket payments.<\/p>\n

USC eliminated one plan with no premium and limited another with $0 deductibles. Many lost access to hospitals they previously visited, including UCLA and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.<\/p>\n

While nurses returned to work on Feb. 26, an agreement had not been reached by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

The strikes closely follow 18 months of university layoffs. In a 2025 statement<\/a>, then-interim President Beong-Soo Kim said USC\u2019s $200 million budget deficit was due in part to \u201cpoor health system financial results\u201d and \u201csignificant shifts\u201d in federal aid for the hospitals.<\/p>\n

An analysis of documents detailing USC\u2019s layoffs showed that of the 1,133 employees USC has laid off since July 2024, almost a third \u2014 402 of them \u2014 worked at Keck Medicine or its hospitals. <\/p>\n

Of Keck Medicine\u2019s $3.2 billion revenue, more than 80% comes from its hospitals.<\/p>\n

Rudy Cuellar is a nurse at Keck Hospital\u2019s intensive care unit. In the mid-1980s, his family immigrated from El Salvador to the U.S. while escaping the Salvadoran Civil War. His brother, mother and sister-in-law have all been nurses too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it just runs in the blood, and that\u2019s because we care for our patients,\u201d Cuellar said in an interview. \u201cWe care for people. We\u2019re passionate to care for the people who need it the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuellar said when USC bought Keck Hospital from Tenet Healthcare in 2009, he and his colleagues hoped it would bring new opportunities for their profession. At first, Cuellar said the opportunities did enhance his work. He also said Keck\u2019s dedication to nurses waned over time.<\/p>\n

Cuellar is a member of the bargaining team for the California Nurses Association. He took part in the February strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the third contract I\u2019ve negotiated for the nurses, and this is by far the most difficult experience that we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Cuellar said. \u201cIt seems like the hospital is making it much more difficult for the nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decades of growth in revenues, months of loss in workers<\/p>\n

Before layoffs started in 2024, USC had not permanently laid off healthcare employees en masse in the nearly two decades Cuellar has been employed by the university. According to USC\u2019s first public financial report<\/a>, from 1999, the university\u2019s annual health care service revenues have increased by almost $3 billion in nearly three decades.<\/p>\n

That year, the university reported $165 million in revenues for healthcare services. Adjusted for inflation, annual revenues have increased almost tenfold. On average, the university has grown its healthcare service revenues by $100 million every year.<\/p>\n

\"visualization\"\/<\/p>\n

Last July, Keck announced in a statement that it was laying off employees due to \u201csignificant, industry-wide challenges.\u201d The statement said these challenges included \u201clabor and supply inflation\u201d and fewer patients.<\/p>\n

Despite Keck\u2019s statement that layoffs would \u201cbetter position Keck Medicine to continue serving our community for years to come\u201d and \u201cmaintain seamless patient care,\u201d registered nurses and patients at Keck and Norris are still feeling the strain months later.<\/p>\n

Cuellar said that while nurses face obvious hardships with layoffs, it is patients who will feel the consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are not able to take breaks in a timely manner, you are prone to make mistakes, and we work in a profession where we cannot afford to make mistakes,\u201d Cuellar said.<\/p>\n

Simonton said the decision conflicts with the healthcare workers\u2019 mission: \u201cIt\u2019s a people-first industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf USC is not going to put its own employees first, then we\u2019re not at our peak in order to take care of those patients,\u201d Simonton said. \u201cIt leads me to believe that they\u2019re not taking patient safety seriously, that they\u2019re not putting their patients first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valerie Hernandez is a pulmonary specialty nurse at Keck and another member of the nurses\u2019 bargaining team. She said while nurses were mostly spared from layoffs, their jobs became increasingly harder as USC failed to replace members of Keck\u2019s \u201cfloat pool,\u201d a group of adaptable nurses employed by the hospital to fill staffing gaps across departments.<\/p>\n

In her interview with Annenberg Media, Hernandez said she was actively finding coverage for her short-staffed coworkers. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to leave them high and dry,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cA lot of times it\u2019s hard to say no to that \u2026 We don\u2019t want our unit to be left short.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staffing shortages are not only causing nurses to work overtime. Every nurse interviewed by Annenberg Media said staff frequently miss meals or skip breaks to provide care for patients who would otherwise not be seen by care providers.<\/p>\n

The layoff documents also show that administrators overseeing these issues were laid off, including multiple staffing, nursing and patient coordinators.<\/p>\n

When asked what necessitated Keck layoffs despite being USC\u2019s most profitable arm, Keck referred Annenberg Media to its layoff statement from July. <\/p>\n

Asked about the recent strike, Keck School of Medicine redirected Annenberg Media to a prior statement from February. The statement said Keck wanted to \u201creach agreements that are fair, provide competitive pay and benefits, and reflect our dedication and support of our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keck did not answer whether it would put revenues toward meeting the strike demands of its nurses. Officials also did not respond to a question on how it tracks instances of nurses missing meals on shift to compensate them under the California Labor Code.<\/p>\n

Cuellar said that if conditions do not improve soon for nurses, more strikes \u2014 for longer \u2014 are not out of the question.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her time negotiating as a nurse, and on behalf of her fellow nurses, Hernandez said through tears: \u201cThe more I work for this employer, the less hopeful I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Hernandez said she wants to believe people in leadership roles will do the right thing, what keeps her inspired is seeing her fellow nurses \u201cstand together and stand strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remain hopeful in knowing that we will continue to stand up for our patients,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cWe will continue to stand united to push back against these massive takeaways and cuts to our healthcare and to our patients \u2026 That hope does remain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being laid off from his position as a special education teacher in 2011, Michael Simonton decided to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[24906,1902,1583,89618,48,52,51,6113,47,50,49,4821,89619,1577,1584,20390,86,95255,2328,1816,3533],"class_list":{"0":"post-206355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-deficit","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-hospital","11":"tag-keck","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-layoffs","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","18":"tag-los-angeles-news","19":"tag-medicine","20":"tag-norris","21":"tag-nurse","22":"tag-patient","23":"tag-revenue","24":"tag-strike","25":"tag-surplus","26":"tag-union","27":"tag-university","28":"tag-usc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}