This week, USC Keck Medicine and the Keck School of Medicine announced a mass layoff of 89 employees across all departments due to “workforce restructuring.”
A notice of the layoffs was sent to the Keck Medicine and Keck School of Medicine community on Aug. 4, signed by Senior Vice President for Health Affairs Steven Shapiro, Keck Chief Executive Officer Rod Hanners, and Keck School of Medicine Dean Carolyn Meltzer.
Keck let go of 89 employees, according to state labor documents reviewed by Annenberg Media. 45 of those employees were laid off from Keck Hospital at the USC Health Sciences Campus. Keck officials confirmed that layoffs impacted the “entire health system,” including its four hospitals and more than 100 clinics across Southern California.
Keck officials cited that the layoffs were a response to USC interim President Beong-Soo Kim’s call for budget cuts to address USC’s $200 million budget deficit. Earlier this month, Kim warned layoffs would happen university-wide to help cut costs and reduce the budget deficit during looming federal funding cuts.
When asked about whether layoffs would impact services offered at clinics, Keck did not specifically comment on whether there may be a delay in patient care or increased wait times for appointments, writing in an email:
“While the layoffs may impact the entire health system, these measures better position Keck Medicine to continue serving our community for years to come. We are committed to working with affected staff to help support this transition and ensure seamless patient care as we implement important changes over the coming weeks.”
USC’s Chief Health Officer Dr. Sarah van Orman confirmed to Annenberg Media that student health services will be offered as normal and are unaffected by either the budget cuts or Keck layoffs.
While Tuesday’s memo said the healthcare system made its “best efforts” at reducing costs to avoid layoffs, Keck would not provide any specifics about what these efforts were, but that “Keck Medicine instituted cost saving measures months ago.”
Keck did not respond as to whether salary reductions of senior administrators were considered to avoid layoffs. According to ProPublica records, Shapiro made more than $3 million in 2024, Hanners more than $2.2 million and Meltzer more than $1.6 million.
Former Keck employees expressed their anger and fear on an online Reddit thread. Multiple laid off employees said they were let go after decades working with Keck, receiving only a text notification prior to their severance.
Keck did not offer Annenberg Media specifics regarding Keck’s efforts to prevent layoffs, who may be impacted by future layoffs, and why certain positions were let go. Keck redirected the request for information to the memo they sent to employees on Tuesday that contains all information currently available about the layoffs.
This is a developing story.