Trios Health in Kennewick, Wash., laid off 32 employees, or about 4 percent of its workforce, according to a Tri-City Herald report.
The layoffs affected "many areas of the hospital," primarily nonclinical areas, Jeff Atwood, spokesperson for Trios' parent company, Brentwood, Tenn.-based RCCH HealthCare Partners, told the publication.
They come more than a year after the healthcare district that owned Trios Health filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The district's unsecured creditors eventually approved a plan for RCCH to acquire Trios, and that transaction was completed in June through a joint venture with Seattle-based University of Washington Medicine.
"As you would expect, this has been an incredibly challenging day for our team, especially for the affected colleagues," Trios CEO John Solheim told the Tri-City Herald. "The uncertainty brought on by the significant financial challenges and bankruptcy resulted in physicians leaving the area, patients choosing to go elsewhere for care and minimal investment in services and physician recruitment. As a result, according to both national standards and existing patient census, the current staff at the hospital outnumbered the need."
Trios said hospital admissions in August decreased nearly 25 percent compared to the same period a year prior, and inpatient surgeries and outpatient procedures also fell.
Laid-off employees will receive severance pay and may apply for temporary COBRA health insurance coverage.
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