In October, The Green Mountain Care Board, the governing body of the University of Vermont Medical Center, ordered University of Vermont Health Network to cut $122 million in revenue from Central Vermont Medical Center and UVMMC to stay within an imposed cap.
The health system and its employees have since fought back against the cuts, which include cutting 200 jobs, eliminating $18 million in administrative expenses, reducing the number of patients who stay overnight at the UVMMC from 450 to 400, eliminating surgical renal transplants and stalling construction on a planned $129 million outpatient surgery center in South Burlington, Vt.
Now, staff members are rallying in protest against the cuts. On Dec. 5, staffers rallied to call attention to the $122 million cut, according to a Dec. 5 report from the Burlington Free Press.
Nurses, support staff and technical professionals rallied outside UVMMC to carry hospital beds along Colchester Avenue, signifying the loss of the 50 inpatient overnight beds.
Employees protested in their scrubs, wearing stickers that read, "Protect patient care, stop the cuts."