Health workers oppose lab jobs takeover

Aug. 10--HYANNIS -- A health care worker union has written a state regulatory commission to oppose Cape Cod Healthcare's decision to outsource laboratory services to Quest Diagnostics.

Jerry Fishbein, vice president of health systems at 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, criticized Cape Cod Healthcare's attempt to make Quest responsible for diagnostic testing from freestanding laboratories, a move that will result in the loss of dozens of jobs.

"It is extremely troubling that Cape Cod Healthcare is willing to slash vital jobs and potentially jeopardize patient safety by outsourcing laboratory services to a company like Quest Diagnostics," Fishbein said in a written statement.

Cape Cod Healthcare CEO Michael Lauf met with lab employees June 27 to talk about plans for Quest Diagnostics to test local samples at its Marlboro site, resulting in the loss of about 55 Cape lab jobs.

Under the terms of the agreement, Quest will be responsible for handling the diagnostic testing from 14 freestanding Cape Cod Healthcare Laboratory Services Centers.

The tests have been performed at "core" labs located at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis and Falmouth Hospital, Lauf said.

The 1199SEIU union leaders sent a letter Monday to the state Health Policy Commission criticizing the move, said Nikko Mendoza of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.

The Health Policy Commission is an independent agency that analyzes health care costs and monitors how health care organizations function.

The union is concerned about the "lack of transparency from Cape Cod Healthcare about the impact of the proposal on the patients and the workforce," Mendoza said in a phone interview.

Lab turnaround times are now four hours or less, said Cynthia Lockwood, a medical technologist in the core lab at Cape Cod Hospital.

"There's going to be huge delays in turnarounds for these patients," she said.

But Cape Cod Healthcare officials said in a statement released Wednesday that they "have every confidence in Quest's ability to deliver quality, safe and timely results to our patients and providers.

The statement went on to say that "Quest's significant investment in technology means they can offer advanced testing, including highly advanced and novel genetic sequencing tests for cancer, neurological disorders and other diseases."

Cape Cod Healthcare is being forced to make difficult decisions because insurers and government payers are calling for lower costs and "made it clear that they do not expect to continue to reimburse us for the full cost of our lab testing in the long term," the statement said.

Lauf has said about 250 lab employees will be retained as Cape Cod Healthcare employees after testing services have moved to Quest.

Employees can apply for other jobs at Cape Cod Healthcare under union contract rules, Lauf said in June, adding that there were about 180 jobs open at Cape Cod Healthcare.

The problem is most of the professional jobs that are open are for nurses, an entirely different profession, Lockwood said.

The layoffs will affect full- and part-time customer service technicians, medical technologists and medical lab technicians, according to the union.

-- Follow Cynthia McCormick on Twitter: @CmccormickCCT.

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