Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health on Feb. 6 announced immediate and long-term plans to restructure operations, which would affect at least 1,650 employees across its 94 hospitals and care sites.
Officials said the efforts include potential job changes and relocations, along with the creation of three centralized patient billing service centers.
"Trinity Health is transforming at the clinical and administrative levels for the benefit of the people and communities we serve," Michael Slubowski, president and COO of Trinity Health, said in a statement. "We are committed to supporting our teams and colleagues through the changes, all of which position us for improved patient experiences, an information technology structure that enables us to provide coordinated care to patients across the system, and increased efficiency to help make care more affordable."
The restructuring comes amid Trinity Health's transition to Epic's EHR system. A health system spokesperson confirmed to Becker's Hospital Review in April 2018 Trinity Health was reviewing its EHR strategy as part of a broader strategic plan to shift from producer-centered to people-centered system, which emphasizes population value.
As part of the restructuring, the health system will initiate changes to its patient billing services through 2022. Trinity Health facilities will maintain their own revenue cycle operations until their respective transitions. Officials said the planned revenue cycle changes were part of the system's strategy before its decision to transition to Epic.
Approximately 450 IT workers whose positions support Trinity Health's current EHR and its related applications will transition to the system's application management services partner, Leidos. As Trinity Health transitions to Epic, those support positions for legacy applications will no longer be needed, and those employees will transition to Leidos to aid in the company's other applications management support clients.
The health system plans to offer relocation assistance to employees who move and opportunities to transition to other jobs in their current locations. Officials will provide severance pay and outplacement services to employees who end up leaving the system.
Hospitals within Trinity Health reported that some employees would be laid off due to restructuring efforts. Boise, Idaho-based Saint Alphonsus Health System will face 181 job cuts in October, according to the Idaho Statesman, while Syracuse, N.Y.-based St. Joseph's Health reported 113 jobs would be affected by the changes, WSYR-TV reports.
Editor's note: This article was updated at 11:25 a.m. Feb. 7 to include additional information from Trinity Health.