Light system replacement to tie up tunnel traffic
March 12, 2012
New legislation to crack down on DWIs. Or will it?
March 12, 2012
Labor and delivery, nursery and neonatal intensive care units at Leonard J. Chabert officially closed at the beginning of business on Monday. According to Chabert CEO Rhonda Green, a LSU Health Care System mandated cutting of 80 jobs across the board might not be the final number or combination as shifting among departments continued to be made into Tuesday and after a news deadline.
“When you do the actual number [of required job cuts] our actual number we had to do was 80,” Green said. “But besides the 80, there were people not counted in the Civil Service layoff.”
Green said that for Chabert, some obstetrics personnel had training and skills where they could be moved to other departments. Some were transferred and will require new training and some, as going with the health system’s plan were forced to leave the medical center for employment elsewhere.
“It is confusing,” the CEO said. “The Department oh Health and Hospitals has a Table of Organization and tells us how many full time equivalents we can have. They [by way of the LSU Board of Supervisors] took away 80 positions. So some of the people that were in the nursery got jobs in the emergency room or up on another floor. But they might have displaced somebody else. So those people had to go home.”
Otolaryngist Dr. Irving Blatt is one of Chabert’s founders who has voiced concerned about the hospitals direction in the LSU Health Care System. “[The system] has been mismanaged,” he said. “I think the best thing to do here is trumpet efforts to help this hospital keep the funds they generate so it can be operated exclusive of an overseer.”
Blatt claims LSU has not been transparent regarding individual hospitals within the health care system and alleged that delays in calculating final numbers on department cuts is a delay tactic to protect itself.
“[LSU] has been transparent as the way they operate all these hospitals,” Blatt said. “You’ve got a failed system here.”
As part of a group, joined by state Rep. Joe Harrison, Blatt said legislation is being drafted that would propose Chabert do business separate form LSU. “Or at least be able to keep the money it generates on its own,” he said.
Green said some vacancies were eliminated by attrition and that final totals of the various combinations had not been completed on the first business day of this week.
“They are working on numbers right now,” the CEO said. “The number of 80 cuts is real. But the rest because of positions and job positions have not been determined.”
“You have a failed system here,” Blatt said. “You’ve got to call it fair and square. This hospital is being marketed to train doctors and take care of the indigent. But there are many people that use this hospital. The big problem with this facility is that it became a colony.”
The LSU Health Care System member hospitals had been faced with cuts to assist the organization with a $34 million target of cuts. Chabert’s share has been $2.9 million.
Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center closed its obstetrics floor Monday, but the entire staff, including those in surgery are waiting for final decisions on how many jobs will be cut.
