The following healthcare layoffs were reported by Becker's Hospital Review so far in July. They are listed below, beginning with the most recent.
1. Ozarks Community Hospital in Springfield, Mo., will lay off 200 employees as the organization closes its surgery and emergency departments, according to a Springfield News-Leader report. OCH blamed the layoffs on the fact that CMS is terminating OCH's Medicare provider agreement status, effective Aug. 1, because OCH does not satisfy the federal definition of a hospital. OCH has indicated it intends to appeal CMS' decision.
2. University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington has laid off 155 people, but many will still be working at the organization, The Connecticut Mirror reports. Of the 155 people who have been laid off from the health center, only 35 actually will no longer work there, according to the report. The rest, the report states, have been reassigned at lower pay with either a new job description or reduced working hours. They will still be considered full-time employees.
3. Kenilworth, N.J.-based pharmaceutical company Merck plans to cut drug research jobs at sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, The Wall Street Journal reports. The job cuts, as well as some employee transfers, are expected to affect fewer than 10 percent of discovery, preclinical and early development employees in Kenilworth, Rahway, N.J., and North Wales, Pa., according to Merck.
4. High Point, N.C.-based CHESS — a physician-managed healthcare services company — will let go 65 administrative staff members, the Triad Business Journal reported. The layoffs are a result of changes to its largest client, High Point-based physician group Cornerstone Health Care. Cornerstone started and branched off CHESS before creating its own venture with Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Burlington, N.C.-based LabCorp. Wake Forest Baptist then purchased Cornerstone in May and the physician group began working as a business unit within the facility.
5. St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings, Mont., plans to lay off 49 employees and close its child care center, eliminating what equates to nearly 84 full-time equivalent jobs, according to a Billings Gazette report. Forty-nine employees will be laid off, 24 open positions will be left unfilled and roughly 15 people will transition to other roles at the hospital, according to the report.