Detroit Medical Center is laying off employees, and its parent company, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, is planning to sell or close four urgent care centers in the Detroit area, according to Crain's Detroit Business.
Detroit Medical Center officials told Crain's layoffs have occurred, but they declined to disclose the number of employees affected. Sources told Crain's several hundred DMC employees have been laid off with more expected this year. Clinical staff, administrative assistants and employees at the management level were reportedly affected by the layoffs.
"Like many health systems locally and nationally, we continually evaluate and review our staffing needs, which have decreased due to reduced patient demand during the pandemic," DMC said in a statement to Becker's Hospital Review. "Our goal is to ensure we are strongly positioned to provide the highest quality and safest care to our patients while making the best use of our resources."
Tenet is also planning to sell or close its four remaining MedPost urgent care centers in the Detroit area. Tenet has reached agreements to sell three of the urgent care centers in Bloomfield, Livonia and Southfield, Mich., to First Choice Urgent Care, a company spokesperson told Becker's Hospital Review.
"We expect all employees in good standing to be offered positions to remain at the facilities upon completion of the sale, which we anticipate occurring in December," the spokesperson told Becker's.
The MedPost urgent care center in Rochester Hills, Mich., will close in December, the spokesperson said. Tenet may convert it to a physician office or other type of healthcare facility.
"We are committed to providing our full support and assistance to employees through the close, and facilitating opportunities for open roles at local Tenet facilities," the spokesperson told Becker's.
Tenet, a 65-hospital system, operated nine MedPost urgent care centers in the Detroit area at the beginning of the year. It closed five of the centers in April due to challenges linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. The MedPost urgent care centers are not part of DMC.