COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -
Providence Hospitals announced Monday it will let 56 people go and eliminate another 13 open positions citing an ever-changing healthcare market and the need to remain operationally sound.
The layoffs affect approximately 3 percent of the system's 1,900 employees.
A press release said several factors led to the decision to reduce its workforce: the growing shift from inpatient to outpatient care, reduced payments for hospital and physician services, and continued high unemployment resulting in an increase of uninsured and underinsured patients using its emergency departments.
"As we continue to ensure the hospitals success into the future to serve the greater Columbia community, we will continue to place our emphasis on ensuring high quality and patient safety and providing the best and most compassionate patient care," said George Zara, Providence Hospitals President & CEO. "As the health care sector changes, so do we have to change to address the health care needs of today and tomorrow."
In addition to the layoffs, the system will also focus on a number of operational improvements. The operational changes and layoffs will result in a $5.8 million cost savings in 2012.
"Our strategy is not just about cost-reduction; it is about positioning Providence Hospitals to grow in the ever changing health care market," Zara said. "I believe this is the best way for us to continue our commitment to serving the health care needs of people in the Midlands."
Providence is not the first to cut positions, according to Jimmy Walker, the vice president of the South Carolina Hospital Association.
"We started seeing hospitals all around the state realigning their staff," Walker said. "Sometimes it meant moving them from an inpatient location to an outpatient location, sometimes it did mean reducing force."
The reductions will happen over the next two days. Hospital Administrators blame a growing shift from inpatient to outpatient care, as it's an industry wide occurrence.
"Things that used to be done on an inpatient setting are now being done outpatient," Walker said. "Things that used to require four or five days length of stay for a patient now can be done within a 24-hour stay."
They also blame current and proposed Medicare and Medicaid reductions statewide. This year those cuts could amount to $150 million.
"The health care environment is really uncertain today," Walker said. "All you have to do is turn on your TV and listen to the political ads. One side wants to improve health care, the other side wants to repeal the act and here hospitals are trying to figure out how to best manage in the middle."
Hospitals are also providing more care to patients who are underinsured or uninsured, and who are using the emergency room as a regular doctor's office.
"There are a growing number of uninsured coming to our hospitals for care, and we're having to care for them and that's patients that you're providing care for and there's no reimbursement for those patients," Walker said.
The South Carolina Hospital Association says there will always be a need for health care workers, but the setting in which they work, may change. It may not be the traditional hospital setting that many work in today.
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