Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth will lay off 95 employees as it outsources work to health information management firms in Georgia and Missouri, according to The Columbian.
A new agreement with Alpharetta, Ga.-based Ciox Health will result in PeaceHealth eliminating 35 jobs in medical record release and retrieval, effective in early to mid-January. An expanded agreement with Springfield, Mo.-based EDCO Health Information Solutions will result in the layoffs of 60 employees who provide document management and digital scanning services, effective in mid-November.
The change in staffing follows recent outsourcing agreements struck by 10-hospital PeaceHealth.
In August, The Columbian reported the system's elimination of 30 medical coder positions, some of which were outsourced to T-System, a Dallas-based company that provides emergency room documentation, coding software and services.
In February, PeaceHealth struck an agreement with Madison, N.J.-based Quest Diagnostics to outsource lab services and management at PeaceHealth hospitals in Washington state, Alaska and Oregon. The new contract resulted in the system anticipating 413 job cuts, including 271 positions in Oregon.
In regard to the latest layoffs, PeaceHealth officials shared the following in a written statement: "As part of our commitment to our patients and communities, PeaceHealth continues to enhance how we deliver clinical excellence and compassionate care with the very best value. To further this goal, we are partnering with industry-leading health information management providers to standardize how we perform medical record scanning, document management and release of information functions. These partnerships are intended to enhance care by making the digitization, consolidation and secure movement of health information as efficient and fast as possible for our patients, partners and caregivers."