Ocean Beach Hospital in Ilwaco, Wash., recently eliminated several positions in two departments and filled an executive position that has been vacant in recent years, according to a Chinook Observer report.
Here are four things to know about the changes.
1. On July 15, the hospital cut the equivalent of one full-time and one half-time position from its three-person Health Information Management department, which maintains patient health records, according to the report. One senior employee still works in a full-time health records position.
2. Weeks later, on Aug. 1, the hospital dissolved its billing department, which had six staff members, three of whom worked solely on billing, according to the report. Of those three billing jobs, one full-time position and one half-time position were eliminated. OBH offered alternate positions to both of those staff members, but they chose to leave the hospital, hospital CEO Kendall Sawa told the Chinook Observer. Others from the department are working in alternate positions.
3. Late last month, after the decision was made to lay off employees, Larry Cohen joined the organization as COO.
4. The changes come as the hospital looks to run more efficiently and continues to move toward profitability, the report notes. Mr. Sawa told the Chinook Observer that hospital leaders knew changes to both billing and HIM departments would be necessary when the hospital adopted an EMR system several months ago.
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