Kaiser to Lay Off Dozens of Outpatient Nurses in San Rafael

Nurses at Kaiser Permanente’s outpatient clinics in San Rafael are raising concerns about potential delays to patient care as the company plans to lay off dozens of nurses working there.

The 41 registered nurses and nurse practitioners who would be laid off work in 14 departments, including prenatal care, dermatology and medical procedures, according to the California Nurses Association.

“They are targeting the outpatient nurses,” said Pam Cronin, a pediatric nurse at Kaiser in San Rafael. “These nurses work in specialty clinics. Many of them keep patients out of the hospital — they’re the ones that triage and catch the problems before they become life-threatening.”

CNA, which represents about 500 registered nurses at Kaiser facilities in San Rafael, said patients in the health system are already experiencing long wait times. Layoffs would risk further delaying care, the union argued, causing “potentially deadly consequences.”

“These are pregnant women with concerns about their unborn children,” Cronin said. “They want access to a nurse that can reassure them.”

Nurses with CNA said patients have shared stories of delays in care, long hold times and struggles for older patients using more recent internet-based appointment systems. When told of the planned cuts, Cronin said, patients are shocked.

“Most people recognize that Kaiser is a very large health care provider,” she said.

Kaiser pushed back on the assertion that patient care would be affected, saying in a statement that “none of these changes will impact the quality of Kaiser Permanente’s patient care and services.”

The nonprofit healthcare giant said the staff reductions were made as the volume of care had dropped at its outpatient facilities in San Rafael post-pandemic.

“To match staffing and care needs, we are rebalancing resources,” the company said.

Nurses pointed to Kaiser’s net income in 2024, arguing the company’s justification for the cuts doesn’t hold up.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable that Kaiser made $13 billion last year, yet is cutting staff,” Colleen Gibbons, a medical-surgical nurse at Kaiser San Rafael and the chief nurse representative, said in a statement.

CNA received notice of the proposed layoffs at the end of June, and they are set to take effect Oct. 14.

For the nurses left after the layoffs take effect, the workload will only grow, Cronin said.

“The work doesn’t go away just because the nurses go away,” Cronin said. “There’s still these patients that paid for access to quality medical care … and the nurses will continue to try to provide it despite how Kaiser continues to tie our hands.”

Forty-two workers in San Rafael were initially slated for layoffs, but negotiations with CNA spared a position, reducing the total to 41.

Kaiser said the number of total affected positions may change as bargaining with the union continues.

The company pointed to 400 open nursing positions across Kaiser locations in Northern California, saying it wants to “help transition impacted employees to available inpatient positions that are closest to where they live.”

Nurses plan to picket the layoffs on Thursday outside Kaiser’s downtown San Rafael clinic.

Clarification, Sept. 24: A previous version of this story said nearly a quarter of nurses at Kaiser’s outpatient clinics in San Rafael would be laid off. Kaiser and the California Nurses Association dispute the impact of the proposed layoffs, with Kaiser saying the cuts would affect 18% of outpatient nurses in San Rafael and the union estimating closer to 23%.