The Mass General Brigham hospital system is making another massive round of layoffs this week.
The layoffs began with a first round last month. MGB expects about 1,500 positions to be affected in all. An MGB spokesperson said in a statement that they’re trying to cover a projected budget gap of hundreds of millions of dollars within the next two years.
MGB President and CEO Dr. Anne Klibanski announced the latest round of layoffs in an email sent to all MGB employees Monday morning.
“In February, we announced and began a substantial strategic reorganization resulting in the elimination, consolidation or rescoping of a number of positions across all parts of Mass General Brigham, primarily focused on management and administrative roles,” Klibanski wrote. “Today, we begin the final step in that reorganization, and all planned notifications will occur this week.”
This week’s layoffs mark “the end of the workforce action that began on February 10th,” she wrote.
“As a not-for-profit integrated healthcare system, Mass General Brigham is facing the same unrelenting pressures affecting many health care systems across the country that are contributing to a projected budget gap of a quarter of a billion dollars ($250m) within the next two years,” a spokesperson said in a statement to GBH News. “We are acting now to allow us to continue with planned and future investments.”
While there’s no reduction in clinical staff, Paula Ward, a registered nurse at Newton Wellesley Hospital, said last month’s staff reductions included positions like an associate chief nursing officer, who was important for day-to-day operations.
“They say it does not affect direct [care], like, literally the person that takes care of that patient,” Ward said. “But it does, no matter what they do. And they’re trying to cut money from stuff that should not be removed. This is patient-facing care whether they want to say it or not.”
Ward said the hospital’s director of pharmacy was laid off, adding a challenge at a time when the hospital is still having difficulty getting enough IV fluids .
She said she’s worried about the impact this new round of layoffs will have on Newtown Wellesley Hospital.
“Anything more taken out of my organization is going to be a huge devastation, and I don’t know where they’re going to take it from,” Ward said. “That’s really my concern, is where these decisions are coming from, and I don’t feel it has anything to do with what these staff members do. It’s just a money amount.”
Ward said she’d like to see some of those savings come from elsewhere in the MGB budget.
“You have top-level management, like executive-level management, making huge, huge salaries. We have not heard from any of them that there’s been any cut in their pay,” she said. “Taking small cuts to them could hugely save some of these jobs.”
The MGB statement said the hospital system is offering “market competitive severance packages and benefits coverage” to laid off employees.
“We are grateful for the contributions of these colleagues and the value that all our employees bring to our organization each and every day,” the statement reads.
Copyright 2025 WGBH Radio
