Richmond-based UNOS lays off more employees due to new federal contract
VENN
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a Richmond-based nonprofit contracted to oversee organ transplants in the U.S., has laid off more employees one week after reaching a new contract agreement with the federal government to continue its work.
In the morning hours of New Year's Eve, Wednesday, Dec. 31, a statement from UNOS Interim CEO Mark Johnson was posted to LinkedIn, in which he explained that a decision had been made to "reduce the UNOS workforce." He said this was a result of "the narrower scope of work" involved in the Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network (OPTN) contract.
One week earlier, on Dec. 24, UNOS announced on its website that it had reached an agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on a contract to continue overseeing organ transplants after its current contract expired.
"UNOS spent many hours negotiating with HRSA at the end of the year to come to a contract agreement, but it does not include several areas of work that have been core functions of our UNOS team members for years," Johnson said in the statement. "Because of the parameters of our new contract, we were forced to eliminate positions that were no longer tied to OPTN work that is part of our contract," Johnson said in the statement.
Johnson did not say just how many employees were impacted by this decision.
In early November, during the federal government shutdown, financial constraints reportedly caused UNOS to furlough and lay off hundreds of employees and pause some work that impacted organ allocation and patient care.
This most recent round of layoffs comes just weeks after former UNOS CEO Maureen McBride announced her retirement following 30 years with the organization. Johnson is serving as interim CEO and also served as a member of the UNOS Board of Directors.
The full statement from Johnson is included below:
"Today, we had to make the difficult decision to reduce the UNOS workforce based on the narrower scope of work included in our new OPTN contract.
UNOS spent many hours negotiating with HRSA at the end of the year to come to a contract agreement, but it does not include several areas of work that have been core functions of our UNOS team members for years.
Because of the parameters of our new contract, we were forced to eliminate positions that were no longer tied to OPTN work that is part of our contract.
I want to personally extend my deepest thanks and appreciation to those individuals for their dedication to our work and our mission. We would not be the UNOS organization we are today without them.
UNOS looks forward to continuing to support facets of the OPTN and helping to save more lives through the gift of organ donation and transplant while expanding our work and products to support the broader healthcare community.”
