CarePoint Health, based in Bayonne, N.J., has laid off less than 2 percent of employees at the health system's three hospitals and corporate office, a system spokesman confirmed to The Jersey Journal Feb. 18.
CarePoint Health owns Christ Hospital in Jersey City, N.J., Bayonne (N.J.) Medical Center and Hoboken (N.J.) University Medical Center.
Here are five things to know about the layoffs.
1. CarePoint Health attributed the layoffs to healthcare industry trends under the Affordable Care Act. "CarePoint has taken the necessary step of reducing and realigning our workforce in order to ensure that our healthcare delivery network can provide the care that is needed in the decades to come," system spokesman Jarrod Bernstein told The Jersey Journal. "The difficult decisions that had to be made are consistent with an industry-wide trend as a result of the Affordable Care Act that has seen care shift from inpatient facilities to ambulatory settings including clinics and physician offices."
2. Mr. Bernstein did not disclose to The Jersey Journal exactly how many employees will be laid off or provide a breakdown of affected employees by occupation. However, based on figures previously provided by CarePoint, the layoffs would affect less than 90 of the company's roughly 4,500 employees, the publication reported.
3. Layoff notices were sent out to 49 nurses at Christ, although Jeanne Otersen, a spokeswoman for Health Professionals and Allied Employees, the union that represents workers at Christ Hospital and Bayonne Medical Center told The Jersey Journal she expects far fewer will lose their jobs since many of them will move to different units or shifts, reduce their hours or transfer into other positions.
4. At Bayonne Medical Center, the equivalent of five full-time union jobs will be cut through a combination of reduced hours and layoffs, according to Ms. Otersen.
5. JNESO District Council 1, which represents roughly 400 nurses at Hoboken University Medical Center, couldn't immediately be reached by The Jersey Journal to discuss the layoffs.
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