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Action News Investigates has learned UPMC started using a new $50 million corporate jet less than a year before announcing 1,000 layoffs.UPMC officials said the jet is an efficient way to conduct business. They have leased a similar jet in the past. However, some nurses dealing with staff shortages said they were outraged not only by the jet but also by UPMC paying millions to its former CEO.According to the flight tracking site JetSpy, UPMC started leasing the 2023 Bombardier Global 6500 in May 2023. UPMC did not disclose the cost of leasing the plane. According to Bombardier, the jet seats up to 17 passengers and can fly up to 6,600 nautical miles.JetSpy records show UPMC has used the jet for 90 flights since May 2023, flying to Ireland, Italy, and Croatia, where the health care giant owns hospitals.Action News Investigates asked Leslie Davis, UPMC CEO, if she had any concerns about using a new jet.“No, we have no concerns. We have lots of tools and lots of things we do to manage UPMC. We have lots of robots and things that take care of patients in the operating room, and we have transportation issues related to our executives and our physicians when they travel abroad. And so everything is scrutinized and looked at very carefully,” Davis said.Records show UPMC has also used the jet for trips to cities where it does not have hospitals, including Montreal, San Francisco, Seattle, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach. On April 24, the day UPMC announced the layoffs, its jet flew from Boca Raton to Pittsburgh in the morning. It went back to Boca Raton that same afternoon and returned to Pittsburgh the next day.Asked why UPMC was flying the jet to places with no UPMC facilities, spokesman Paul Wood said in a statement: “The leased jet is used for essential and efficient business travel.”Action News Investigates spoke with two UPMC nurses who asked not to disclose their identities for fear of retaliation.“It’s such a slap in the face to see this,” said one nurse. “It just feels like it’s for this corporate greed instead of concern about their patients.”Another nurse was asked what message the new jet was sending nurses.“That we’re expendable,” the nurse said. Dr. Vikas Saini, head of the Lown Institute, a think tank that focuses on health care equity, commented on the issue.“It is a legitimate question for taxpayers to ask, what is my benefit to flying to Italy and Ireland? What do we as a community get from that? And the short answer is, not much,” Saini said.UPMC is designated as a non-profit, so it is exempt from millions of dollars in taxes. UPMC said the layoffs impacted primarily non-clinical, non-member-facing administrative staff.Asked if patients should be concerned about quality of care following the layoffs, Davis said, “We’ve been repositioning UPMC as all companies and health systems need to win the future. And so I’d rather just focus on the future, which is the great quality and patient care and everything else that we’ve been able to accomplish at UPMC.”But the nurses said clinicians they work with have been let go, raising concerns about patient care.“We’re being told to take on more, and that just trickles down to the care that you give the patient. So you’re just getting more surface-level care and not the depth of the care that people deserve,” a nurse said.In addition to leasing a new jet, recently released tax records show UPMC paid $17.8 million to former CEO Jeffrey Romoff in 2022. That made him by far the highest-paid official at the health giant—a year after he retired.“Mr. Romoff’s 2022 compensation consists of deferred incentives and other contractual payments related to his 2021 retirement,” Wood said.Asked if he had any concerns about the payout, UPMC Board Chair John Surma said: “No, I can’t comment on that. Keep in mind, I’m a former large public company CEO , so I’ve been through that for a little bit. And it’s really not something that you can comment on or explain. It is what it is.”The nurses had a different reaction.“That’s gross,” said one nurse. “When I’m wandering around the halls looking for a thermometer, I’ll really be thinking about that $17 million.”Earlier this year, UPMC reported nearly $28 billion in revenue for 2023. However, the hospital chain also reported an operating loss of nearly $200 million last year. For the first quarter of 2024, UPMC reported a $103 million operating loss. That compares to a $100 million gain in the first quarter of 2023.
Action News Investigates has learned UPMC started using a new $50 million corporate jet less than a year before announcing 1,000 layoffs.
UPMC officials said the jet is an efficient way to conduct business. They have leased a similar jet in the past. However, some nurses dealing with staff shortages said they were outraged not only by the jet but also by UPMC paying millions to its former CEO.
According to the flight tracking site JetSpy, UPMC started leasing the 2023 Bombardier Global 6500 in May 2023. UPMC did not disclose the cost of leasing the plane. According to Bombardier, the jet seats up to 17 passengers and can fly up to 6,600 nautical miles.
JetSpy records show UPMC has used the jet for 90 flights since May 2023, flying to Ireland, Italy, and Croatia, where the health care giant owns hospitals.
Action News Investigates asked Leslie Davis, UPMC CEO, if she had any concerns about using a new jet.
“No, we have no concerns. We have lots of tools and lots of things we do to manage UPMC. We have lots of robots and things that take care of patients in the operating room, and we have transportation issues related to our executives and our physicians when they travel abroad. And so everything is scrutinized and looked at very carefully,” Davis said.
Records show UPMC has also used the jet for trips to cities where it does not have hospitals, including Montreal, San Francisco, Seattle, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach. On April 24, the day UPMC announced the layoffs, its jet flew from Boca Raton to Pittsburgh in the morning. It went back to Boca Raton that same afternoon and returned to Pittsburgh the next day.
Asked why UPMC was flying the jet to places with no UPMC facilities, spokesman Paul Wood said in a statement: “The leased jet is used for essential and efficient business travel.”
Action News Investigates spoke with two UPMC nurses who asked not to disclose their identities for fear of retaliation.
“It’s such a slap in the face to see this,” said one nurse. “It just feels like it’s for this corporate greed instead of concern about their patients.”
Another nurse was asked what message the new jet was sending nurses.
“That we’re expendable,” the nurse said.
Dr. Vikas Saini, head of the Lown Institute, a think tank that focuses on health care equity, commented on the issue.
“It is a legitimate question for taxpayers to ask, what is my benefit to flying to Italy and Ireland? What do we as a community get from that? And the short answer is, not much,” Saini said.
UPMC is designated as a non-profit, so it is exempt from millions of dollars in taxes. UPMC said the layoffs impacted primarily non-clinical, non-member-facing administrative staff.
Asked if patients should be concerned about quality of care following the layoffs, Davis said, “We’ve been repositioning UPMC as all companies and health systems need to win the future. And so I’d rather just focus on the future, which is the great quality and patient care and everything else that we’ve been able to accomplish at UPMC.”
But the nurses said clinicians they work with have been let go, raising concerns about patient care.
“We’re being told to take on more, and that just trickles down to the care that you give the patient. So you’re just getting more surface-level care and not the depth of the care that people deserve,” a nurse said.
In addition to leasing a new jet, recently released tax records show UPMC paid $17.8 million to former CEO Jeffrey Romoff in 2022. That made him by far the highest-paid official at the health giant—a year after he retired.
“Mr. Romoff’s 2022 compensation consists of deferred incentives and other contractual payments related to his 2021 retirement,” Wood said.
Asked if he had any concerns about the payout, UPMC Board Chair John Surma said: “No, I can’t comment on that. Keep in mind, I’m a former large public company CEO [at U.S. Steel], so I’ve been through that for a little bit. And it’s really not something that you can comment on or explain. It is what it is.”
The nurses had a different reaction.
“That’s gross,” said one nurse. “When I’m wandering around the halls looking for a thermometer, I’ll really be thinking about that $17 million.”
Earlier this year, UPMC reported nearly $28 billion in revenue for 2023. However, the hospital chain also reported an operating loss of nearly $200 million last year. For the first quarter of 2024, UPMC reported a $103 million operating loss. That compares to a $100 million gain in the first quarter of 2023.
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