Kaiser Permanente managers met with 42 outpatient clinic nurses in San Rafael and Petaluma on Thursday to inform them that their positions are being eradicated.
The nurses work in quite a lot of clinics, together with dermatology, gastroenterology, common surgical procedure, ophthalmology, head and neck, psychiatry, obstetrics, gynecology, orthopedics, pediatrics and urology.
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“At our San Rafael Medical Center, which employs nearly 2,500 staff and physicians, the volume of care in our outpatient settings increased significantly during the pandemic and has now shifted to other settings or locations,” a press release issued by Kaiser mentioned. “To match staffing and care needs, we are rebalancing resources.”
In its assertion, Kaiser mentioned that it’ll work to redeploy nurses issued layoff notices to certainly one of 400 out there nursing positions that it at the moment has open.
“If an affected employee cannot be deployed in another position, or chooses not to remain with Kaiser Permanente, we offer career support and outplacement services,” the corporate mentioned.
Kaiser nurses disagreed the transfer have been mandatory.
“There is no need for any layoffs,” mentioned Colleen Gibbons, a registered nurse within the medical-surgical division of Kaiser’s San Rafael Medical Middle. “Patients are already waiting for care.”
Gibbons mentioned it’s taking up a month for Kaiser sufferers to see their doctor and anyplace from six to eight months or longer for routine colonoscopies.
“Eliminating these positions will just increase the wait times for patients, which in turn will increase the amount of patients going to the emergency room that’s already bursting at the seams with patients,” she mentioned.
Pamela Cronin, a pediatric nurse who works in each San Rafael and Petaluma, mentioned, “This was very unexpected. Nothing like this has happened in the last 30 years.”
“We are already so short-staffed in the clinics that when someone is on vacation or calls in sick, more often than not, there is no nurse to cover,” Cronin mentioned.
Cronin mentioned the elimination of 42 nurses would represent a 28% discount within the 150 outpatient clinic nurses at the moment working for Kaiser in San Rafael and Petaluma.
One of many nurses being laid off, Jenn Cass, a triage/recommendation nurse at Kaiser’s ophthalmology clinic in San Rafael, mentioned she had first-hand expertise with the lengthy wait occasions.
Cass, who’s 64, mentioned that when she lately tried to schedule a colonoscopy in San Rafael that had been ordered by her physician, she was advised she must wait two months.
“I’m a cancer survivor, so this is critical for me,” she mentioned.
Cass mentioned she was in a position to get an earlier appointment at a clinic in San Francisco, however she mentioned touring that distance for a process that requires sedation is a hardship for a lot of of Marin County’s older residents.
“The way it was presented to us is that they’re rebalancing for patient care, but it’s only going to hurt care because patients can’t get through on the phones as it is,” she mentioned.
Cass mentioned that as an ophthalmology nurse generally the recommendation she dispenses could be crucial.
“We have diagnosed strokes over the phone when someone has a branch occlusion stroke in their eye,” she mentioned. “We’ve diagnosed heart attacks and had to call 911.”
Cass, who’s single, mentioned the lack of her job will probably be an financial hardship for her. She mentioned she has been searching for jobs with Kaiser on-line, and has discovered nothing.
“I’m too young for Medicare. I will lose my medical benefits in 30 days, and what if there’s cancer?”
Cass mentioned she additionally will be unable to make her home funds with no paycheck. She mentioned she purchased a home in San Rafael close to the Kaiser clinic at 1650 Los Gamos Drive in 2020 after transferring from Kaiser San Francisco.
“I would have never bought that house if I’d known that this was going to happen,” she mentioned.
Final month, College of California, San Francisco Well being issued layoff notices to about 200 staff, 1% of its workforce, citing unspecified “serious financial challenges.”
Kaiser nurses, nonetheless, query the necessity for Kaiser to chop prices given the glowing monetary experiences that the corporate has posted lately. Kaiser reported a web revenue of $12.9 billion in 2024 and web revenue of $2 billion within the first quarter of 2025.
Kaiser created an affiliated nonprofit, Risant Well being, in 2023. Since then, Risant Well being has acquired two well being methods: Danville, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Well being, a 10-hospital system and Greensboro, North Carolina-based Cone Well being, a five-hospital system.
In response to Becker’s Hospital Evaluate, Risant plans to amass three to 4 extra methods over the following 5 years to develop into an organization with $30 billion to $35 billion in annual income.
“They’re taking our California money and diverting it to other areas instead of taking care of the patients that have prepaid for their health care,” Gibbons mentioned.
A June report in Fitch Rankings, a credit standing company, acknowledged that in fiscal 2023 and financial 2024 Kaiser benefitted from “sustained membership levels, a rate increase, and ongoing expense management, including improved employee turnover and lower contract labor use.”
“Like all U.S. acute care health providers, Kaiser faces ongoing headwinds and uncertainty, particularly from federal policy, including possible Medicaid cuts and tariffs,” the report mentioned. “Nevertheless, Kaiser’s deep and broad reach, diversification of assets, and favorable payor mix should yield a more resilient operating platform when compared to many acute care hospital providers.”
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