Several hospitals and health systems are trimming their workforces or jobs due to financial and operational challenges.
Below are workforce reduction efforts or job eliminations that were announced within the past two months and/or take effect over the next month.
1. Pikeville (Ky.) Medical Center will lay off 112 employees by year's end as it outsources its environmental services department. The 112 layoffs are effective Jan. 1, 2023, with the affected employees' last day of work expected to be Dec. 31.
2. Southern Illinois Healthcare, a four-hospital system based in Carbondale, is eliminating or restructuring 76 jobs in management and leadership. The 76 positions fall under senior leadership, management and corporate services. Included in that figure are 33 vacant positions, which will not be filled. No positions in patient care are affected.
3. Citing a need to further reduce overhead expenses and support additional investments in patient care and wages, Traverse City, Mich.-based Munson Health is eliminating 31 positions and leaving another 20 jobs unfilled. All affected positions are in corporate services or management. The layoffs represent less than 1 percent of the health system's workforce of nearly 8,000.
4. West Reading, Pa.-based Tower Health on Nov. 16 laid off 52 corporate employees as the health system shrinks from six hospitals to four. The layoffs, which are expected to save $15 million a year, account for 13 percent of Tower Health's corporate management staff.
5. New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center will lay off 3 percent of its workforce by mid-January 2023.
6. Fayetteville, N.C.-based Cape Fear Valley Health is eliminating 200 positions. The decision affects 42 employees in non-direct patient care positions. The other 158 positions were unfilled positions. Employees were informed of the changes Oct. 27.
7. Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health announced layoffs affecting an undisclosed number of staff in October, a decision its CEO said was made "to streamline leadership structure and simplify operations" in certain areas. The layoffs primarily affect nonclinical areas.
8. University Hospitals announced efforts to reduce system expenses by $100 million in October, including the elimination of 326 vacant jobs and layoffs affecting 117 administrative employees. None of the employees affected by job cuts or layoffs provide direct patient care. The workforce reduction comes as the 21-hospital system faces a net operating loss of $184.6 million from the first eight months of 2022.
9. Ascension is closing Ascension St. Vincent Dunn, a critical access hospital in Bedford, Ind., and nine medical practices in December, a move that will affect 133 employees. Affected employees who do not secure another position within the health system will be offered severance and outplacement services.
10. Quincy, Ill.-based Blessing Health System closed its hospital in Keokuk, Iowa, Sept. 30. The closure affected 151 workers. The layoffs took effect Nov. 4. The employees did on-site work or were placed on administrative leave until the layoff date, Blessing Health said.
11. St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland closed its inpatient and emergency room care Nov. 11, four days before originally planned — and laid off 978 workers in doing so. After the transition, the Sisters of Charity Health System will offer outpatient behavioral health, urgent care and primary care.
12. Commonwealth Health, part of Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, will lay off 245 employees by closing facilities. The health system is closing First Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Kingston, Pa., and its various outpatient centers on Oct. 30. Affected workers are encouraged to apply for open positions they're qualified for at other Commonwealth Health facilities, a system spokesperson told Becker's.
13. Bakersfield (Calif.) Heart Hospital laid off 114 employees. Affected employees were told in September that they no longer had to report to work, but they would continue to receive full pay and benefits through Nov. 5. The layoffs are an effort to optimize operations and to free up resources for patient care and specialized surgery, the hospital said.