St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan began laying off more than 300 workers last week in an attempt to avert a complete shutdown.
The 160-year-old Catholic hospital has asked other employees for 120-day pay cuts of 10 percent to 25 percent. Executives and doctors in leadership positions were asked to take cuts of 25 percent, while other employees were asked to take smaller cuts.
St. Vincent's has asked unionized workers, such as nurses, to take cuts of 10 percent to 15 percent; hospital officials said those workers would vote on whether to accept them.
According to the New York Times, the 300 workers who received layoff notices include 32 medical residents, managers at all levels and members of 1199 S.E.I.U., the hospital union, in jobs like dietary work, housekeeping and transporting.
Arthur Y. Webb, the hospital's chief of operations, told the Times that six programs – sleep medicine, endocrinology, pathology, ophthalmology, renal medicine and neurology – would be closed by the end of the month. But he said the hospital's H.I.V., psychiatric and community clinics were still fully operational.
St. Vincent's is $700 million in debt and reportedly losing $5 million to $10 million a month.