Med center is back in the black
Hospital workers protest plans to cut 250 positions
By Michelle Maitre, STAFF WRITER, Oakland Tribune
Article Last Updated: Friday, June 25, 2004 - 3:46:34 AM PST

Officials at the Alameda County Medical Center are expecting a net income of nearly $2.4 million next fiscal year -- a vast improvement over the expected loss of $61.7 million this year, according to a draft budget proposal released Thursday.

The dramatic shift from red to black is thanks mostly to a half-cent sales tax voters approved in March that will provide an estimated $69 million next year to the medical center. The tax, dubbed Measure A, kicks in July 1 and sunsets in 15 years.

The proposed budget also includes savings of $12 million in salaries and benefits due to imminent layoffs.

Some 250 positions are expected to be cut, amount-

ing to about 300 people losing their jobs, according to union representatives who met with management Thursday.

Among those being cut are 39 registered nurses,

49 licensed vocational nurses, 56 nursing assistants and 69 clerks, accord-

ing to labor organizers.

The trustees approved a plan to cut 340 positions in April. Those numbers have since been revised down to an estimated 250 positions.

Hospital workers protested the layoffs at noontime rallies Thursday at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro and Hayward's Winton Wellness Center, a county outpatient clinic.

"We cannot provide services to patients with these cuts," said Kuwaze Imara, a registered nurse at Highland

Hospital.

Workers expressed concerns about understaffing at the new critical care and clinics building at Highland, which opened May 31 and houses the emergency department and trauma center. The new ER is three times larger than the old one.

The protests were organized by a new group called CURe ACMC, or Citizens United for a Responsible Alameda County Medical Center.

The group's coordinator is a former trustee at the medical center, Robert Phillips, who resigned in the fall along with four other trustees amid disputes with the county Board of Supervisors over the medical center's future.

"We're not saying we don't need improvements at the medical center, but 71 percent of voters supported the medical center, and there should be a high level of scrutiny," Phillips said.

Officials at the medical center said that Measure A funds alone would not be enough to right the organization.

The medical center is projecting losses from state and federal sources of more than $10 million next fiscal year, as well as increases in workers' compensation and inflation, according to the budget proposal.

But medical center officials are projecting increased patient revenue of $12 million, or 10 percent, due to increased volume, a rate increase and signing up more patients for state-funded insurance programs.

The budget proposal also includes $500,000 for a marketing budget to promote the medical center's services.

The trustees hired Cambio Health Solutions, a turnaround firm, in January on a $3.2 million, 18-month contract to rein in the medical center's budget deficit, then projected for the current fiscal year at $71 million.

The full board of trustees is expected to vote on the budget proposal Monday.

Meanwhile, the battle over layoffs will continue.

"We haven't gotten any analysis of what the impact would be on patient care," said Kay Eisenhower of Vote Health, a consumer group.

Contact Rebecca Vesely at rvesely@angnewspapers.com.