Facing a potential 19-percent cut to the nursing staff at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, representatives of the New York State Nurses Association said patients ultimately would suffer.
“It”™s not a hammer toward the nurses; it”™s a hammer on the patients. That”™s where the hammer comes down,” said Samuel S. Caquias, president of the local NYSNA bargaining unit, at an Oct. 27 gathering of 50 nurses outside the hospital.
Hospital officials have notified the association and the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), which represents some 1,600 employees at the center, that as many as 620 full-time positions may be cut unless the hospital is able to negotiate with the two unions to find savings in other areas.
Among the possible cuts are 250 registered nurse positions, 350 CSEA positions and 20 administrative positions. Talks between the hospital and NYSNA representatives are scheduled for Nov. 9 and talks with CSEA representatives are scheduled for Nov. 7.
“The magnitude of cuts that he (Westchester Medical Center President and CEO Michael D. Israel) is talking about is part of an ongoing assault on the patient population,” said Peter Piazza, president of CSEA Unit 9201.
Israel said the hospital would do whatever it could to avert the cuts but there is a projected $50 million gap between revenues and expenditures that would need to be closed.
“Part of the issue ”¦ (is) there are more people being put into the system with reimbursements being reduced to hospitals and physicians,” Israel said. “We are looking at a 1- to 2-percent cut in Medicare, a 1- to 2-percent cut in Medicaid, yet our costs are going up.”
With Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements accounting for roughly 50 percent of all reimbursements Westchester Medical Center receives, Israel said the hospital”™s financial resources were being stretched to their limits.
Also, because it is one of just a handful of hospitals in New York state to be part of the state pension plan, pension costs are two to three times higher than those of similar hospitals, Israel said. He said the center”™s pension payment is projected to quadruple between 2006 and 2013 from $18 million to $72 million, adding that the state comptroller ”“ not the hospital ”“ sets the pension levels.
“The bottom line is we have some unique costs and we”™ve got to find solutions because the medical center can”™t operate in the red,” Israel said. “We will do everything we can to make sure we deliver the highest quality of care but we must be fiscally conservative.”
Israel said the hospital would continue to care for every patient in need of medical attention and its board of directors would vote on the 2012 budget at its December meeting.
