MedExpress Urgent Care, a chain of clinics owned by Optum, itself a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, will be eliminating registered nursing positions at about 150 facilities as part of a broader round of layoffs at Optum, which so far has been tight-lipped regarding the reasons for the move, Healthcare Finance reports.
Nurse.org reported the layoffs, which were confirmed by West Virginia’s NewsChannel WSAZ 3, the latter of which said that RNs would no longer be employed by MedExpress after Sept. 7.
MedExpress nurses posted an online petition calling on UnitedHealth Group to reverse the decision, which they said will result in the termination of all RNs nationwide.
Calling the decision “rash, reckless and unsafe,” the nurses filing the petition claim that there’s currently no plan in place for the retraining necessary to make MedExpress clinics run without nurses. Read more.
