Layoffs are ramping up among hospitals and health systems. Here are 34 examples from 2023
07 Apr 2023
AHAExecutive Change
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Source: FierceHealthcare
Industrywide shortages of clinical labor may be in the spotlight, but escalating expenses and other financial pressures have many providers axing administrative and managerial staff.
Layoff announcements have increased this year as hospitals and health systems limp out of a financially devastating 2022.
First-quarter cuts among healthcare companies including hospitals were up 65% year over year, according to a recent multisector report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In fact, the volume of layoff waves from hospitals and health systems during that time are already nearing 2022’s full-year totals.
So far, the job eliminations are coming from organizations big and small, whether that be a major health system like Adventist Health or Jefferson Health aiming to reorganize its administrative expenses or a smaller hospital scaling down services out of financial necessity.
The cuts are also primarily falling on the shoulders of administrative staff or even upper-level management rather than patient-facing employees. In fact, many organizations paired their layoff announcements with notices that they were continuing to aggressively hire nurses and other clinical positions that, despite steady hiring trends, are still in high demand.
Read on below for a running roundup of 34 layoff announcements, news reports and regulatory filings from hospitals and health systems during 2023.
Adena Health System President and CEO Jeff Graham announced 69 job cuts as well as the transition of 340 revenue cycle department employees to Ensemble Health Partners, a vendor the system has partnered with since 2018. Adena employed about 4,250 people prior to the cuts and transitions. Graham said that those who were laid off would be eligible for severance and outplacement assistance and that about half of these employees are qualified to fill other open roles. The system will still continue to hire “in strategic areas,” he noted.
Adventist Health laid off 59 administrative employees as part of a reorganization to consolidate its care networks and ultimately save $100 million in costs. System leadership said all affected staff were given 60 days written notice and would make “every effort to identify other opportunities for team members impacted.” Layoffs began Feb. 1 and continued to April.
Altru Health System CEO Todd Forkel described in an interview three recent executive cuts and early retirement incentive packages that were accepted by 34 staff. The system’s margins are narrowly in the black, though it had to take out an additional loan to cover rising costs for ongoing new hospital construction.
Ascension laid off an undisclosed number of workers employed within its Texas branch due to industrywide operational pressures. The large nonprofit system said in statements that it aimed to minimize any impact on patient care and that the cuts were focused primarily on nonclinical support positions. Elsewhere, the system’s decision to end maternity care at its St. Vincent’s Riverside hospital impacted the jobs of 62 registered nurses and six other employees, per a regulatory filing. The cuts go into effect for those who do not find another position within the organization and will be eligible for severance pay.
Cone Health eliminated 61 positions, 21 of which affected director-level employees who were offered severance packages. The remaining 40 positions were unfilled. The cuts represent roughly a quarter of a percent of the system’s 13,000-person workforce. Finances and rising expenses were behind the position, with Cone reporting a $97.2 million loss across fiscal 2022.
Crozer Health cut the positions of roughly 215 employees, or 4% of its total workforce, as part of a restructuring that cut costs, optimized administrative efforts and shuttered underutilized health services. The system said it would be considering impacted employees for other open positions and providing access to outplacement services to others.
Excela-Butler (the as-yet-rebranded entity resulting from Excela Health and Butler Health’s merger) laid off 13 manager-level staff that did not provide direct patient care. Those affected hailed from both sides of the new entity, which has been aiming to revamp its expenses.
Hutchinson Regional Medical Center announced a staffing reduction impacting 85 positions. These employees were eligible for a paid notice period and COBRA health benefits continuation. The system said it was pairing the layoffs with other efforts to manage expenses.
Integris Health announced plans to eliminate 200 positions in January, about 140 of which will see employees leaving the organization. The 16-hospital system said it will also be focusing on reducing non-labor expenses going forward.
Jefferson Health started the year with a reorganization that included “an unspecified number of job cuts, mostly among executives.” The academic system said its efforts would help streamline and optimize operations after years of rapid expansion and financial losses reported by parent organization Thomas Jefferson University.
Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital is reportedly laying off 20 employees in mid-April, less than 2% of its 980 full- and part-time workforce. Impacted employees will be given severance packages and other career assistance.
Kaweah Health followed up on previous rounds of cuts with an additional 94 eliminations. The district hospital’s collective 200-or-so cuts plus other measures including overtime reduction, shift-bonus cuts and a half on 401(k) contributions add up to about $98 million in much-needed annual savings, leadership said.
Mad River Community Hospital’s suspension of home health services comes with 27 job eliminations, though the affected employees are encouraged to apply for other vacant positions within the hospital or its outpatient departments.
Madera Community Hospital’s January closing came with 772 permanent layoffs effective Jan. 3. Of these, 687 were among those at the main hospital campus. The facilities were running at a $2.5 million per month operational deficit.
Marshfield Clinic Health System filed a layoff notice affecting 346 employees across the organization. The workers were notified in early March with the layoffs taking permanent effect by May 19. The system said it has also cut over 500 unfilled positions and cited industrywide financial pressures.
McLaren Health Care’s spring closure of St. Luke’s Hospital will come with layoffs for 743 employees, about a third of whom are registered nurses, the organization wrote in a regulatory notice. Others impacted by the layoffs include nursing assistants, pharmacists, accountants, housekeepers, physical therapists and technicians, the chief operating officer and vice president of patient care services and the chief nursing officer. About 400 of those employees were later hired by Mercy, which bought the location.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterCancer Center released 337 of its employees across several New York locations, per a regulatory filing (PDF). The organization employs about 22,500, equating the layoffs to less than 2% of its total.
MU Health Care, part of the University of Missouri, axed five unspecified hospital leadership roles as part of a restructuring.
MUSC Health laid off an undisclosed number of executives and administrators. The layoffs came about a month after the resignation of division CEO Terry Gunn.
Novant Health trimmed 50 jobs including multiple executives, including its executive vice president and chief consumer officer, innovation vice president, and chief transformation and digital officer.
Nuvance Health is laying off 102 employees effective April 12 due to the closure of a 100-bed residential healthcare facility. The organization said that some staff could be transitioned to other appropriate openings within the health system and that others will receive 60 days of normal pay and benefits.
OU Health kicked off the year with word of an organizational overhaul that brought the elimination of roughly 100 filled jobs and the reconfiguration of 200 others. OU Health said the move was necessary in the wake of a summer 2021 merger and paired the news with an announcement that it would be temporarily suspending its employee 401(k) and reducing some paid-time-off accrual.
Overlake Medical Center and Clinics laid off 30 human resources, IT and finance employees, representing about 6% of its administrative staff and less than a percent of its 3,500-person total. A spokesperson told the press that the employees received “a full support package” including severance, career support and continued benefits and that the organization is still recruiting for other clinical positions.
Penn Medicine launched a reorganization aiming to save $40 million in annual costs by, among other measures, eliminating an undisclosed number of administrative positions. The system repored $147.5 million in operating income in fiscal 2022 as well as a $103.6 million operating profit for the most recent six months ended Dec. 31.
Additionally, affiliate Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health has laid off fewer than 65 of its roughly 9,700 employees who don’t directly care for patients. Those affected reportedly include patient safety department leaders, staff who help monitor suicidal patients and nurses who track certain measures such as surgical complications. The organization said it would be helping those who were laid off find other roles inside and out of the system, and providing severance and continuation of benefits based on the length of their service.
ProMedica Health System (PDF) informed the local government that its divestiture from a skilled nursing facility joint venture would come with the layoffs of 262 regional and corporate support staff. Of these, 255 worked remotely. The system said that it believed some of the employees would be rehired by the joint venture’s purchasing organization.
Sovah Health, part of LifePoint Health, axed the chief operating officers of its Danville and Martinsville hospitals, the latter of which had begun his role just a week prior. The positions have been entirely eliminated and redistributed to others on the administrative team.
St. Luke’s Health System said it was cutting about 2% of its 16,000-person workforce, equating to about 320 positions. The mass layoff primarily impacts nonclinical and administrative roles, the system said, and is part of a broader response to rising costs.
St. Mark’s Medical Center laid off 64 of its 144 employees amid trimmed-down service offerings and a transition to the new Rural Emergency Hospital designation.
Tufts Medicine laid off 70 “primarily administrative” staff and eliminated another 170 unfilled positions. The system employs roughly 13,000 people.
Valley Health has eliminated almost 100 positions since the beginning of the year through consolidation, attrition and elimination, citing nearly $100 million in losses since the beginning of the pandemic. These include 31 administrative employees released by the six-hospital system in early March.
Valley Health System’s conversion of the 282-bed Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center to a free-standing emergency department hit 970 of its employees. The system is owned by Universal Health Services.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health laid off between 300 and 400 employees due to heavy financial losses. The cuts represent less than 2% of its total 19,000-person workforce and were primarily among non-patient-facing roles. Affected employees were eligible for “career transition assistance” alongside severance and extended benefits. The 10-hospital organization said it is focusing any investments and savings on patients and front-line caregivers.
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