PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Nearly 300 OHSU employees — some of them front line workers — were notified Monday they were getting laid off, including 151 union workers.
These layoffs have been looming for weeks , spurred by an operating loss of $64 million for the fiscal year that ended Sunday.
Jennie Olson, who both writes grants and contracts for OHSU and is the president of the AFSCME Local 328 which represents thousands of OHSU workers, told KOIN 6 News the number of layoffs could potentially rise to 500 members.
“I’m very surprised by the jobs that are being eliminated,” she said. “I don’t see how OHSU can really handle these layoffs. We already have problems with long wait lists for patients to get in, the quality of care. People have complained. So to further eliminate staff doesn’t make sense to me.”
Last week, OHSU officials publicly stated it would focus the largest percentage of layoffs on administrators, not health care workers.