The dismal economy slowed hospital hiring in 2009, but Connecticut’s not-for-profit health care providers did add some full-time jobs during the year, according to recently released financial records from the state Office of Health Care Access.
Connecticut’s 30 acute care hospitals added about 500 full-time equivalent positions statewide in fiscal 2009, compared to 1,679 new jobs a year earlier.
But even some of those newly recorded positions weren’t actually new jobs to the state’s economy.
St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, for example, had the second largest employment jump in the state, according to the OHCA, with 220 new full-time positions.
The increase stems from St. Vincent’s addition of two subsidiary units — Hall-Brooke Behavioral Health Services and St. Vincent’s Special Needs Services — into its corporate structure, said Ronald J. Bianchi, the hospital’s corporate senior vice president.
That helped add about 220 positions to St. Vincent’s workforce, but most of those jobs already existed in the state.
Overall, state hospitals reported a total full-time equivalent workforce of 51,402.
The biggest employment jump came from Yale-New Haven Hospital, which added 304 full-time equivalent positions, increasing its staff about 5 percent to 6,648.
Vin Petrini, the senior vice president of public affairs at Yale-New Haven Hospital, said the increase was related to the opening of the organization’s new $476 million, 14-story Smilow Cancer Hospital. The, 497,000 square foot facility has 168 beds and offers 12 operating rooms and radiology services.
“We had to ramp up employment to staff those beds,” Petrini said. “We also had clinical growth in our service lines and discharges grew by over 2,000 last year.”
Among the other Connecticut hospitals that increased full time equivalent positions were William W. Backus Hospital, Middlesex Hospital, Hartford Hospital, and MidState Medical Center which added 80, 66, 65, and 41 positions respectively, according to OHCA.
The looming question is what will the future hiring at Connecticut hospitals look like? Officials say the outlook is cloudy.
Health care reform is creating great uncertainty, which will likely put the brakes on any mass hiring within the industry.
Some Connecticut hospitals have already announced layoffs because of the economy and in preparation for health care reform, including St. Francis and Bristol hospitals.
“We are being very conservative,” said Petrini of Yale-New Haven Hospital. “All hospitals in Connecticut are taking a close look at their cost base.”
