CHP cuts 35 jobs
Alicia Castelli
LORAIN - Thirty-five employees of Community Health Partners were laid off Wednesday, and another 51 had their hours reduced in an effort by the hospital system to stave off financial problems.
Ten of the laid-off workers are registered nurses, while the rest comprise clinical and non-clinical staff, as well as a few management and non-management staff, said Ed Oley, president and CEO of Community Health Partners, which operates a range of health care facilities in Lorain County, including Community Regional Medical Center in Lorain and Allen Community Hospital in Oberlin.
The cuts, which amount to about 1.6 percent of the hospital system`s 2,100 employees, are expected to save the hospital system $2.1 million for the remainder of this year and $3.1 million for a full year.
“What we`ve tried in those areas, at the end of the day, is right-sizing the staff to meet the volume levels,” Oley said. “Right now our finances are at break even. These changes will make for profitable earnings for 2009.”
Oley said a drop in patients with health insurance as a result of the area`s job losses has led to a reduction in medical procedures and doctors` visits as well as surgical procedures - particularly elective surgery. He said that given the state of the economy, he didn`t anticipate the situation improving this year.
“We wanted to make the changes proactively and not get in a situation where we`re losing a lot of money and then try to right the ship,” he said.
Most of the laid-off workers will receive some kind of severance package as spelled out in their union contract. In addition to the cuts, full-time employees are being asked to voluntarily reduce their work week to 36 hours if the hospital can accommodate it. The 36 hours would still qualify them for full-time benefits, according to Jennifer Kennedy, hospital spokeswoman.
In addition to the 10 nurses, three management positions were eliminated. As a result, various departments were restructured to operate without the management layer that was cut.
The cuts were spread through the hospital system and included its various physicians` offices as well as its hospitals in Oberlin and Lorain and other health care entities. No doctors were cut. Kennedy said laid-off workers are being encouraged to apply for other jobs with the Catholic health care system, and they could be recalled if a vacancy occurs.
Generally, the hospital system has about a 12 percent annual employee turnover rate, Kennedy said.
Oley said the reductions won`t affect customer service, even the newly launched pledge at its emergency rooms that patients will see a doctor within 30 minutes of their arrival. He said the areas that were cut have had less work due to the economic decline.
“We don`t think this will affect customer service,” Oley said. “The cuts are in areas we saw where (customer) volumes weren`t high. We now have appropriate staffing for appropriate volumes.”
He and Kennedy both said that prior to the staffing cuts, hospital officials scrutinized the budget - its annual operating budget is more than $200 million - to find all the savings that could be had.
“We`ve spent the last month poring through our departments line item by line item to reduce as many discretionary costs as possible,” Oley said. “We reduced our discretionary costs by $2 million before we made the decision to restructure. This was the last thing we needed to do to make things happen.”
In addition, the hospital system`s sponsorships of various events will be cut by 90 percent, too. That doesn`t mean requests for funding won`t be honored, but each will be examined to determine if it fits the hospital system`s mission before any funds are awarded, Kennedy said.
“We`re looking at every request that comes in,” she said. “We`re evaluating them on how we can help, how it fits with our organization and how it helps the community and betters the health of the community.”
Oley said the cuts will position the system when and if it needs to seek capital funding for various endeavors. Businesses no longer can secure loans to build or buy costly equipment if they cannot show a profit, so CHP must be on sound financial footing, he said.
He wouldn`t elaborate as to whether the hospital system has any plans for new facilities or purchases.
“There are a number of economic relationships that we are evaluating right now, and it`s important we have the funding to do that,” he said.
Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.
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Filed by Alicia Castelli May 7th, 2009 in BREAKING, Top Stories.
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Has anyone noticed a trend here? Let’s continue to build off site “clinics”, merge with other hospitals, etc. Take a drive around Lorain, Cuyahoga, Medina, etc (all counties contiguous with Cuyahoga) and on ever street corner, highway exit, etc you will see either the Cleveland Clinic, CHP, etc. sites. These sites are NOT convenient. Have the administrators of these places ever stopped to initerview patients that are stuck going to these sites? Its totally a joke. You go to this clinic for this service, you go to that clinic for that service, you go to this clinic to see that doctor, but wait, you have to also see Dr. so and so and he is clear on the other side of another county! These places have limited hours, limited services and now it looks like limited staff. Perhaps the Cleveland Clinic, CHP, University Hospitals, etc are just getting too big for their britches! Build another site (due to competition), then go back and lay off workers to pay for these satellites places. Unbelievable!
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It just keeps getting worse. I read an article in USA Today about the tent cities cropping up and growing fast in America. In Florida, an aid agency near St. Petersburg, Fl, is building 8′ by 6′ sheds for people to live in. There are photos of how people were living in small shacks like this during the Great Depression. No longer are the homeless made up of mostly drug/alcohol addicts or the mentally ill. The ranks of college educated people joining the homeless is growing quickly.
While I feel sorry for the 35 employees who were laid off, I don’t feel sorry for the financial hardship CHP is experiencing. They, as all have, have charged insurance companies and patients outrageous prices for the simplest items/services. This is reflected in our insurance premiums. The devil always gets his due. Too bad CHP.
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CHP is NOT the only healthcare entity that takes advantage of people with insurance (and thus the preimus rates keep going up up up) What makes me furious is: AS AN EXAMPLE: you have insurance, you have an MRI of your knee, that fee will be approximately 2000. Your health insurance approves it. (this does NOT mean your insurance will pay the total billed amount however). So CHP might get 20.00 from your insurance company and the rest is written off. Your account is paid in full. Those without insurance? THey have to pay THE TOTAL AMOUNT billed of 2000. Totally totally totally unfair.
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This characterization of our organization is completely unfair, CHP has, for quite a time done everything they could to avoid laying people off. For the people who were cut, I’m sorry, however our president Ed was correct in saying that the main staffers who were cut were in the elective surgery/procedures departments. Many of our departments and units are overstaffed, and many are understaffed so the administration figured restructuring was the way to go, so everyone is feeling the heat not just those who have been laid off, there are many of us who are still worried about our jobs as the economonic state of things is obviously not the best. At this point we don’t know if there will be more layoffs, and if there are, when and how many there will be.
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Layoffs equals less revenue for the city.
Less revenue means less service.
Less service means less of what little service the residents are getting now.
less equals less.
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Jack:
I agree with most of what you wrote and to continue the thought: Part of the reason for the insured getting charged higher prices are the volumes of people using ER services for minor, trivial things such as their baby’s earache, or a cold, or the types of illnesses one would typically visit a doctor’s office for, not the ER.
Also, when we have thugs shooting each other in the streets, do you really think they have medical insurance when they get hauled off to the ER? Can you imaging the bill for treating those folks? And yet, they get the same level of care the insured patients get and guess who gets stuck with the bill? The hospital is trying to recoup losses by gouging those who can pay.
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TIAMJ - LOL I know and agree with you, but decided to let that go. I cause enough of a ruckus on here. There have been emergency rooms that closed down, even hospitals, mainly due to uninsured illegals. In my opinion, if you’re illegally in this country, then you don’t deserve to get free (free for them, but the cost passed on to us) medical care.
If illegals decide to take Oberlin up on their offer of sanctuary, then I feel for you folks. Unless your near death, you’re going to have a really long wait in the emergency room. I have bypassed this problem by sitting down for 10 minutes, then telling the intake person I am getting ready to pass out. They take me in real quick. Dirty pool? Maybe, but I look at it as getting around a problem that shouldn’t be there in the first place.
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Jack: I wasn’t EVEN talking about illegals - I was talking about our own citizens who won’t help themselves - I call them the “Gimme Crowd”, with the sense of entitlement that it’s the rest of society’s duty to keep them fed, housed, clothed, and medically treated. At least the illegals work….and work multiple jobs on top of it!
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