Weeks after a deal fell through with Tenet Healthcare, Waterbury (Conn.) Hospital has shared plans to eliminate 80 full-time equivalent positions from its workforce, according to a Hartford Courant report.
The reductions affect full- and part-time workers for a total of approximately 100 people. Waterbury would not specify how many of those individuals will be laid off, have hours reduced or how many are vacant positions that will remain unfilled, according to the report. It did clarify that a third of the jobs will be in management, a third will be union workers and a third will be nonunion employees.
Waterbury said it employs 1,800 to 2,000 people.
The hospital will also cut expenses by eliminating and postponing hospital initiatives that don't involve patients, closing some community services such as blood-draw stations, reducing hours of service and some care locations, consolidating physician practices and services, and changing the hospital's operating structure, which may include outsourcing.
Dallas-based Tenet had planned to acquire Waterbury Hospital along with four other Connecticut hospitals. But in early December, Tenet announced it would halt those efforts due to proposed conditions state regulators put on the hospital operator's purchase of Waterbury Hospital.
The hospital continues to look for a health system that could acquire it.
"Sadly, community hospitals across the state and country are facing enormous challenges from state and federal reimbursement cutbacks, the impact of healthcare reform, a changing marketplace, and healthcare services shifting to outpatient settings," Waterbury Hospital CEO and President Darlene Stromstad said in a statement. She said these dynamics are especially difficult for hospitals like Waterbury, which serves as a safety net.