Becker's Hospital Review

15 15 CEO/STRATEGY Largest Hospital, Health System Layoffs of 2016 By Kelly Gooch T he following hospitals and health systems announced or implement- ed workforce reductions each af- fecting 100 or more employees this year. The layoffs are listed below, in descend- ing order of the number of positions af- fected. Greenville (S.C.) Health System an- nounced in March plans to eliminate more than 400 positions after suffering a $16 million shortfall in the first quarter of the fiscal year. Greenville Health Sys- tem COO Greg Rusnak said more than half of the affected positions would be the result of not filling open vacancies, normal attrition and the possible imple- mentation of a "voluntary exit incentive program," according to The State. Springfield, Mass.-based Baystate Health announced plans in August to lay off roughly 300 people as a re- sult of a projected $75 million budget shortfall, according to the Boston Busi- ness Journal. The reduction, which will eliminate approximately $40 million in expenses, represents 2.4 percent of Baystate's 12,500-person workforce, according to the report. Chicago-based Presence Health an- nounced in March plans to lay off 250 employees and leave another 450 jobs unfilled this year. Presence announced the layoffs just days after it reported a $186 million operating loss in 2015. Lafayette (La.) General Medical Center did not renew its housekeeping con- tract with Aramark Healthcare Services, and Aramark will lay off 243 employees as a result. Aramark will stop operating at the hospital Dec. 12. More than 200 employees at Chica- go-based Cook County Health and Hospitals System are slated to lose their jobs, according to DNAinfo Chica- go. In the report, Alexandra Norming- ton, a spokeswoman with CCHHS, said the county plans to eliminate 320 posi- tions by the end of 2016, nearly 100 of which are already vacant. Ozarks Community Hospital in Spring- field, Mo., announced in July plans to lay off 200 employees as the organiza- tion closes its surgery and emergency departments, according to a Springfield News-Leader report. At the time, OCH blamed the layoffs on CMS terminating its Medicare provider agreement status because OCH does not satisfy the federal definition of a hospital. OCH previously indicated it intended to appeal CMS' de- cision. Fountain Valley, Calif.-based Memori- alCare Health System announced in March plans to cut 194 jobs as part of its planned closure of Saddleback Memorial – San Clemente (Calif.). Indianapolis-based Community Health Network will close Community West- view Hospital in Indianapolis by the end of 2016, resulting in 187 layoffs, accord- ing to Inside Indiana Business. The lay- offs are expected to occur between Dec. 13 and Dec. 31. University of California, Irvine Health in Orange announced in October plans to lay off 175 employees to reduce costs, reports Orange County Register. Approximately 20 percent of the af- fected employees are supervisors and higher-ups, according to the article. However, the layoffs do not include physicians or faculty. In addition to the layoffs, UC Irvine Health has cut 79 va- cant positions, John Murray, a UC Irvine Health spokesman said in the report. Dallas-based Forest Park Medical Cen- ter's campus in Fort Worth, Texas, shut down May 24 and its employees were laid off, according to the Star-Telegram. Court records show the hospital had 175 employees, according to the report. Austin, Texas-based Seton Healthcare Family will cut 129 jobs as it divests certain hospital revenue cycle depart- ment functions, according to an Austin American-Statesman report. Sixty-eight of the layoffs will occur at the Seton ad- ministrative offices in Austin, 33 at Se- ton's Chevy Chase office in Austin, 22 at the Seton Medical Park Tower in Aus- tin and six at Seton Smithville (Texas) Regional Hospital, according to Seton, part of St. Louis-based Ascension. United Medical Center in Washington, D.C., announced in March plans to cut 112 union and non-union jobs. The layoffs represent 10 percent of United Medical Center's workforce. Washington, D.C.-based Howard Uni- versity Hospital announced in May plans to cut 110 employees as part of a restruc- turing plan. Neither union nor non-union employees were slated to be spared from the layoffs, which were also expected to affect those in management roles, ac- cording to Washington Business Journal. Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic an- nounced in March plans to shut down Mayo Medical Laboratories New En- gland in Andover, Mass., the site of its East Coast lab operations. The lab's 105 employees were informed of the closure. Mechanicsburg, Pa.-based Select Med- ical will close its long-term acute care hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind., by Jan. 20, 2017, according to The Journal Gazette. Select Specialty Hospital-Fort Wayne's closure will affect 103 employees. St. Mary's Hospital in Streator, Ill., laid off an estimated 100 employees last January. The layoffs came as Spring- field, Ill.-based Hospital Sisters Health System discontinued inpatient health- care services at St. Mary's Hospital and transferred ownership of the hospital and its related facilities to Peoria, Ill.- based OSF HealthCare System. n

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