ValleyCare Makes Further Cutbacks at Northside
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- ValleyCare Health System of Ohio will eliminate 56.4 full-time equivalent positions at its Northside Medical Center under a restructuring plan announced to employees this week. Northside will combine “a small number of related care units for efficiency,” according to a statement issued in response to media inquiries.
The cutbacks follow the Aug. 1 announcement by ValleyCare that the equivalent of 77 full-time employees would be cut as well. ValleyCare is a subsidiary of Community Health Systems Inc., a Nashville-based company that purchased the primary operating assets of the former Forum Health, including Northside, in 2010. This summer, ValleyCare launched a $20 million expansion and rehabilitation project at Northside.
The adjustments reflect “dramatic changes” in the U.S. hospital industry including lower patient volumes and shrinking reimbursements in recent years, according to the statement. Hospital volumes nationwide have declined for more than a decade as treatment advances have made more services available on an outpatient basis and in the face of increased competition from nontraditional health-care providers.
The announced changes will primarily affect positions in nursing, respiratory, imaging and laboratory, and both union and nonunion employees.
“We are committed to our community and the patients who count on us for quality care,” said Trish Hrina, vice president of marketing at Northside. “We want our patients, community leaders, medical staff and employees to know -- with absolute certainty -- that we will serve the health-care needs of this community and take the steps necessary to keep this hospital open and available. We will never compromise on quality, compassion or patient safety.”
Those employees leaving because of the reductions “have served Northside and this community with dedication and we thank them. Those of us who remain -- all of us -- share that same commitment,” she added.
In September, the Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association, which represents registered nurses at Northside, staged a one-day walkout to protest the state of negotiations with the hospital. The RNs’ previous contact expired more than a year ago and the bargaining unit rejected what ValleyCare has termed its “final offer.” What the union has termed a “selective lockout” followed the strike, and both labor and management hurled charges of unfair labor practices at each other.
REPORTED Oct. 31, 2013:
CHS Reports 3Q Results, Status of DOJ Investigation
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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