Optum to close dozens of New Jersey medical offices, sending patients scrambling
A major medical office chain abruptly announced dozens of closures across New Jersey, sending patients scrambling to find a new place to get health care.
Optum will be closing nearly 90 clinics across the state, and according to the state Department of Labor, the company is expected to lay off 572 employees in total next year.
Optum offices expected to close by end of month
Optum provides primary care for children and adults. Services like behavioral health, dermatology, endocrinology, pulmonology, podiatry and orthopedics will be impacted.
Most of the impacted offices are expected to close at the end of November.
The clinics' sudden shuttering means hundreds of families will have to look for other doctors to manage their conditions.
"We will continue to provide pediatric, primary care, cardiology, rheumatology and urgent care in certain locations across New Jersey," a spokesperson for Optum tells CBS News New York.
The spokesperson added the company is working patients with to ensure uninterrupted care.
"It's just really, really challenging finding good doctors"
Some patients, including Niki Westra and her 10-year-old daughter, Sutton Westra-Chew, say they've been thrown into disarray.
Westra and her daughter went to the pediatrician in Hoboken on Friday not for a visit, but to get Sutton's medical records. They said Sutton has had the same doctor since infancy.
"Our doctor isn't being placed anywhere else, so it's really frustrating 'cause we've developed this relationship with her and we love her," Westra said.
"I've basically been going to this office my entire life, so it's frustrating because I've created a bond with my doctors, and it's disappointing," Sutton said.
"We're looking for new pediatricians, but I don't think we should have to go out of town of find medical care," Westra said.
Other patients are experiencing similar frustrations.
"It's just really, really challenging finding good doctors and good health care and people that you trust. It's always a challenge," one patient said. "It's disappointing to only be given kind of like a week's notice to try to figure it all out."
