By Carrie James
Now that reports are flying that half the Social Work Department will be cut from the hospital's staff, Burk worries that she will be one of the many social workers to lose their jobs.
"I'm extremely upset, not only for myself, but mostly for my patients that I have been helping for the last year," Burk said. "Now that I am losing my job, who is going to help these people? The thought of leaving this office and taking my things is bad enough, but who is going to help them?
"When I saw Mr. [Richard] Turan [CEO of NUMC] on television talking about how this isn't going to hurt patient care, I started to cry," she continued. "I think it's going to hurt the patients. It's got to hurt the patients."
Social workers aren't the only ones worried at the medical center. Many employees, from housekeeping to nursing, are concerned about what the days before the end of the year will bring them since Nassau Health Care Corporation's Board of Directors passed the budget Dec. 17. The employees all belong to the Civil Service Employees Association Local 830.
Nassau Health Care Corporation, the medical center's parent company, recently approved a $469-million budget that calls for roughly 400 layoffs from within the hospital system, including the medical center, A. Holly Paterson Extended Care Facility in Uniondale and possibly some of the outpatient clinics throughout Nassau County. The cuts are needed, board members said, to save the hospital system from insolvency.
Areas that have already seen advanced warning that layoffs are possible include housekeeping, pathology, primary care-clinic support, kitchen, infectious diseases, case management and others.
Some senior staff members received "bumping letters" that give certain staff members the opportunity, if their position is eliminated, to move into another position. According to a sample letter, a worker might "possess certain seniority rights." If they choose to take advantage of them, it might "prevent loss of employment;" however, it "may result in demotion in title and salary and/or reassignment to another work location."
Registered nurse Noreen Lingham could lose as much as $25,000 annually if she is demoted from her position in case management.
"You come into work and you don't know if you're going to have a job or where you're going to work that day," Lingham said. "My department is one of the ones they say is going to close or get down-sized. You just don't know what's going to happen."
The 400 layoffs expected by year's end aren't the only ones to occur at the hospital within 2001. Infectious Diseases has already lost four doctors this year, said Rosemarie Cayetano, a licensed practical nurse. While little word has come whether she or others might lose their jobs, Cayetano said most everyone there is worried.
Cayetano has worked at the medical center in infectious diseases for seven years, dealing mainly with AIDS patients. She loves her job and can't imagine not helping the patients anymore.
"Yes, I am worried," she said. "Everything is unsure. There is no security in everything. If you are getting to stay, you don't know where you're going to work. I love my work. I love working with these patients.
"Right now, infectious diseases has already taken a great hit," she continued. "Three doctors have been laid off and one left voluntarily. Now, there's only four attending physicians. We're afraid the department will have to close."
Back in the Social Work Department, director Barbara Murphy said that, while she doesn't think the department will close, it will suffer significantly if reports are true that at least half the staff will get cut.
Many throughout the hospital look at social work as getting hit the heaviest. With 29 social workers, each one handles as many as 120 patients monthly, and their days are filled with meeting patient needs.
"We're very concerned because people depend on us," Murphy said. "They come to us for help, for things like finding affordable medication. I'm not sure how we're going to make it with the layoffs coming."
Beside Burk, another social worker who might be lost is Elizabeth Kunz, who works in obstetrics/gynecology. She is the only bilingual social worker in the hospital, and at least 85 percent of her patients speak only Spanish.
"This is horrible what they are doing to the department," she said. "I can't believe they are cutting it in half. I feel horrible. I can't stop crying. People have been asking me what's happening here, everyone looks so down."
All over, hospital staff are sad, overwhelmed and angry at what is happening. And increasingly, they are faced with the fact that little can be done to prevent layoffs.
"Anybody we'll lose is going to hurt us," said Earl Stroughton, a laboratory supervisor in pathology. "Morale is low. It's not only that morale is low, we have a lot of anger and tension there also. I've been here 27 years, and I'm just as worried as everybody else. I don't see why I have any more protection."
Hospital staff are trying to make the best of it. The only thing that keeps many going, said Kunz, are the patients who need them.
Many others have grown attached to the hospital and don't want to leave, even though they might have to, Lingham said
"People really want this place to work," she said. "A lot of people are saying they don't want to leave, but if they have to, they will."
As for Burk, who has been a social worker for 15 years and one year at the medical center, taking the job in oncology was her dream.
"In that year, I grew to love this job," she said. "This job is my dream job because not only did I give to them [her patients], but they gave back to me.
"This has been a shock to me," Burk added. "I never thought that this would happen because our services are so needed. It's ruined my Christmas. It's definitely taken away my Christmas spirit. It's made me very sad, and I'm just trying to deal with it one day at a time. I try to be cheerful. I don't want my patients to be upset this time of year. I'm really hoping for a miracle."
