Covenant Health, the parent organization of Maine-based Bangor St. Joseph Hospital, partnered with a new cybersecurity company, which will cause 104 employees at Bangor to take jobs with a new contractor, switch to different jobs in the healthcare system or leave the organization, Bangor Daily News reported Sept. 21.
On Sept. 20, Knoxville, Tenn.-based Covenant Health said it would partner with Long80 to improve its cybersecurity infrastructure.
The partnership will affect Covenant's information technology departments across its three hospitals in Bangor, Lewiston, Nashua and New Hampshire, although Covenant did not specify where the affected employees are located.
Karen Sullivan, a Covenant spokesperson, said she hopes existing IT staff will be hired by Long80 or for existing Covenant staff to apply for other jobs across the organization. If those options don't work, staff will have to look for work elsewhere.
"There may be some who decide they don’t want to do either of those things, and at that point, we will provide severance, transitional support and so forth," said Ms. Sullivan.
According to Steve Grubbs, Covenant CEO and president, Long80 will visit each of Covenant's hospitals in the coming weeks to assess the current state of IT and staff in the health system to chart a path forward.