Nurses To Protest Layoffs At Kaiser Permanente In Marin County

SAN RAFAEL, CA — Nurses at Kaiser Permanente San Rafael will hold a rally Thursday to protest what they said are the hospital's plans to lay off nurses despite the hospital earning billions in profits last year, according to the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United.

CNA represents about 500 registered nurses working in Kaiser San Rafael facilities, including both hospital and outpatient clinics.

On Thursday, registered nurses who work at Kaiser Permanente San Rafael will protest the plans to dismiss 41 registered nurses and nurse practitioners from their outpatient clinics despite claims that the health care giant posted nearly $13 billion in profits last year, CNA/NNU said.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable that Kaiser made $13 billion last year, yet is cutting staff,” said Colleen Gibbons, an RN in medical-surgical at Kaiser San Rafael and the chief nurse representative. “We already have patients in all kinds of clinics that wait weeks and weeks, even months, to get seen or scheduled for really important tests and procedures that save lives, like colonoscopies and getting checked out for skin cancers.”

Kaiser officials said the San Rafael Medical Center employs nearly 2,500 staff and physicians. The volume of care in their outpatient offices increased significantly during the pandemic but has now shifted to other settings or locations, according to Lena Howland a public relations representative with Kaiser Permanente Northern California.

"To match staffing and care needs, we are rebalancing resources. While this will result in the elimination of a number of nursing positions in San Rafael outpatient clinics, we will work to redeploy nurses affected by this change to one of the 400 available nursing positions we currently have open," Howland said. "Our redeployment process is designed to ensure employees do not experience a disruption to pay or benefits as they go through the redeployment and training process."

Nurses are asking Kaiser members and all patients to email The Permanente Medical Group CEO and Executive Director Maria Ansari to demand she rescind the layoffs.

"None of these changes will impact the quality of Kaiser Permanente’s patient care and services. If an affected employee cannot be deployed in another position, or chooses not to remain with Kaiser Permanente, we offer career support and outplacement services," Howland said.

Kaiser officials said Thursday’s picketing isn't part of a work stoppage and doesn't impact care or operations, which Howland said will continue as normal.