USC Verdugo Hills Hospital laying off 65 nurses, staff as it closes maternal unit

The USC Verdugo Hills Hospital plans to cut 65 jobs, mostly nurses, as it closes its Maternal Health Services unit before Thanksgiving.

The latest round of cuts at USC follow 114 layoffs throughout the university system in recent months due to a variety of belt-tightening moves resulting from reduced budgets.

Verdugo Hills Hospital CEO Armand Dorian wrote in a letter filed with California’s Employment Development Department that the maternal services unit was closing due to “significant financial challenges.”

He attributed those challenges to “shifting demographics, evolving labor force dynamics, reduced demand for certain services and rising labor costs.”

“These issues have created an unsustainable financial trajectory,” Dorian wrote in the Sept. 20 letters filed with EDD.

Glendale-based USC Verdugo Hills is a community hospital affiliated with USC’s Keck School of Medicine. It becomes the latest maternity ward in California to close.

A report from CalMatters found that 56 maternity wards have closed across California since 2012, leading to ” maternity care deserts ” where Black, Latino and low-income communities have become disproportionately affected by these closures. Hospitals blame the service cuts on high costs, labor shortages and declining birth rates.  Gov. Gavin Newsom recently vetoed a bill designed to slow closures of maternity wards, and instead signed legislation that gives communities more time to plan for the loss of such services.

Verdugo Hills’ chief said a “changing landscape,” prompted the decision to close the unit.

“Keck Medicine has had to make the difficult decision to regretfully close the Maternal Health Services, including labor and delivery services and the neonatal intensive care unit, to ensure the long-term viability of the hospital,” Durian said.

The positions being eliminated include registered nurses involved with obstetrics acute care who handle medical emergencies during pregnancy, labor and delivery services, neonatal care for sick or premature babies, as well as a lactation consultant and data coordinator.

The layoffs are expected by Nov. 20.

The hospital chief, who could not be reached for comment, is required to file notice with California of pending layoffs under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

WARN notices are required when an employer lays off more than 50 employees or a significant percentage of its staff.

USC hasn’t made any significant changes to hospital operations since it acquired the facility 11 years ago. The university did promise to invest $30 million in capital upgrades when the deal closed on July 16, 2013.

When USC bought Verdugo Hills, it agreed not to cut any jobs or cease women’s healthcare, maternity and reproductive services for 10 years. The legal conditions were part of the acquisition deal drawn up by California’s then-Attorney General Kamala Harris, now the Democratic Party’s candidate for president.

Although that waiting period has lapsed by more than 15 months, the absence of such terms now paves the way for the university to terminate women’s healthcare services, according to the 93-page document signed by Harris.

More USC layoffs

The layoffs are part of university-wide job cuts in recent months that have resulted in a total of 179 layoffs, including the 65 from the USC Verdugo Hills Hospital,

On May 1, the university announced two separate layoffs, effective June 30, at Los Angeles locations near its downtown main campus.

In total, the USC Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry laid out five positions, while the USC Keck School of Medicine cut 80 jobs.

Judy Garner, interim faculty affairs dean with the Keck School of Medicine, could not be reached for comment. She wrote in a letter filed in May with the EDD that the dentistry school and Keck School of Medicine were “substantially reducing the volume of the services it purchases from the university.”

Several faculty, instructors and program specialists were laid off.

On July 26, there were seven separate WARN filings with EDD under the banner of “University of Southern California” indicating 29 layoff events, effective Oct. 1-8 at locations in the downtown area.

The job cuts were related to a restructuring in “auxiliary services” operations at the university due to “cutbacks in revenue and increased operational costs,” according to Melissa Gerdes-Leonard, associate vice president in charge of client services with USC’s human resources department, in a letter filed July 26 with the EDD.

These layoffs included the director of USC hospitality, food service managers, catering and hotel workers, and other people involved in marketing and communication.