Cleveland Clinic is pushing back against rumors that its partnership with IBM will set in motion widespread job cuts among the system's IT employees, reports The Plain Dealer.
"It is completely not true that there are going to be massive layoffs," Janice Guhl Hammer, senior director of media and public relations, told the publication.
Last month, Cleveland Clinic and IBM announced a five-year partnership that will expand the use of IBM's secured cloud, mobile technologies and cognitive computing services across Cleveland Clinic's clinical and administrative operations. Following the partnership announcement, rumors surfaced of mass layoffs in Cleveland Clinic's IT division, according to the report.
However, Ms. Guhl Hammer told The Plain Dealer Cleveland Clinic's IT employees were informed that the partnership could result in only a small number of layoffs. Overall, about 10 percent of Cleveland Clinic's roughly 1,500 IT employees could potentially be impacted by the system revamping some IT operations, which doesn't necessarily translate into layoffs, Ms. Guhl Hammer told the publication. Other scenarios could include workers being employed by IBM or workers remaining in positions at Cleveland Clinic.
Still, any final workforce decisions as a result of the IBM partnership are months away, according to Cleveland Clinic.