By Gene Lambey,
Special to the AFRO
George Washington University Hospital (GWUH), located in downtown D.C. on the campus of George Washington University, cut 60 employment positions and laid off over a dozen nurses on Jan. 31. The hospital’s parent company, Universal Health Services (UHS), oversees numerous hospitals across the country and is responsible for the decision.
UHS made their cuts to workers and staff members to “reduce expenses and increase efficiency,” as healthcare challenges in finances and management are on the rise. UHS stated the hospital is “in the process of restructuring areas and departments.”
A statement from the UHS on GWUH stated, “All impacted employees have been valued members of our team, and we are treating them with dignity and respect during this difficult time.”
UHS added in their statement that they will support the impacted workers by offering open positions in other departments or provide separation packages for eligible employees.
This layoff cuts the hospital’s workforce by less than 3 percent.
According to the UHS statement, these laid off positions did not include front-line patient care.
Hospital officials at GWUH said that workers who were laid off were offered different positions within the organization.
The District of Columbia Nurses Association (DCNA), the nurse’s union of the district, are supporting the nursing staff that have been laid off from GWUH as well as the GWU Nurses United union.
“We are deeply saddened to have learned of the elimination of certain positions and subsequent firing and/or demotion of GWUH staff,” wrote GWU Nurses United in a statement on Jan. 30.
GWUH workers say they have been struggling, “being overworked and understaffed” since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020. An unfair labor complaint from the DCNA with the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) was filed in March 2023 about the conditions. The nurses of GWUH unionized in response to the unfair treatment. Ed Smith, the executive director of DCNA, spoke on the issue in a statement released in March 2023.
“For years, when nurses tried to raise complaints or tried to get management to help them do their jobs properly–either equipment issues or staffing issues–it fell on deaf ears,” Smith said.
It has been almost a year now since this occurred and now a layoff is happening at the hospital. Overall, the connections between UHS and GWUH staff have not been stable.
The AFRO attempted to speak with UHS regarding the layoff. Susan LaRosa, the director of strategic marketing and communications at GWUH, reshared the first public UHS message with an additional line, stating: “At George Washington University Hospital, our top priority remains providing high-quality care to each patient we are privileged to serve.”
The AFRO also attempted to speak with a member of the GWUH Nurses Union, but no member of the union responded.
The GWUH nurses shared that they were caught by surprise, unaware of this decision by UHS. According to the GWUH United union’s statement, there was no announcement from the CEO of UHS, Marc D. Miller, nor the CNO about the layoff decision.
The union stated there was a lack of transparency and the process of these “terminations” requires a response from higher management “but that has not occurred” yet.
“The lack of transparency and the manner of these terminations require response from management but that has not occurred,” the GWUH Nurses Union wrote in a statement released on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, on Jan. 30. “We are in the profession of caring and UHS has demonstrated they are not.”
The union stated that UHS did not seem to make this decision based with the nurses’ interest in mind.
Information about GWUH layoff is still being investigated. A proper explanation from the UHS on the layoffs has yet to occur.
The AFRO will keep track of the information as it updates.