TMC HealthCare lays off 100 workers
By Becky Pallack
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 04.26.2007
Around 100 workers at TMC HealthCare lost their jobs Thursday as the company announced a round of cost-cutting.
The layoffs come on top of the elimination of vacant positions from TMC's budget, totaling 150 full-time-equivalent jobs and saving the company $6 million by the end of this year, Chief Executive Officer Frank Alvarez said.
Alvarez said the cuts won't affect patient care, and the positions don't include nurses and bedside caregivers. Those who were let go include managers and support staff members, many of whom transferred to Tucson Medical Center from El Dorado Hospital.
The nonprofit hospital group wasn't profitable in the first quarter of the year. Alvarez said that's because it has been over-staffed since it absorbed most of the 500 workers from El Dorado, which the company bought in 2003 and closed about eight months ago.
"Our costs have outpaced growth in our revenues, and so an immediate correction is necessary to keep the organization moving forward," Alvarez said in a prepared statement. "If we do not make these difficult decisions today, we will not be in a position to serve the community in the future."
Tucson Medical Center was budgeted for 5.5 full-time-equivalent jobs per patient bed, but it was employing about 6.1 positions per bed, and "the margins in health care are tight already," Alvarez said.
The hospital also is burdened by the number of uninsured people treated there, because the company often can't collect for emergency services, Alvarez said. Additionally, TMC started offering "call pay" for physicians who are on call to work, he said.
The news from TMC comes after bad news this week from two other local hospitals. University Physicians Healthcare asked for a higher subsidy from Pima County for its Kino campus, and University Medical Center is losing three of its trauma surgeons.
Stephanie Healy, president of the Hospital Council of Southern Arizona, said the events are "symptomatic of the challenges in health care" as an industry, including lower reimbursements, rising costs and costly work force shortages.
"What's happening at TMC is they're reacting to these market forces and doing what they can to assure they can continue to provide quality patient care, not just now but in the future," she said.
Because of the work force crunch, Healy said, many of those who lost their jobs may be picked up by other health-care employers in Southern Arizona.
TMC's job cuts, which were based on position and seniority, came in management and staff jobs including cooks, laundry workers, maintenance workers, and laboratory and pharmacy staffers. Laid-off workers received severance packages based on their years of service, Alvarez said.
"These are all good people that are impacted," he said. "We're sorry to see them go."
The company wanted to retain El Dorado's staff for the opening of its planned new facility, Rincon Community Hospital. It was scheduled to open next year, but that timeline didn't work out, and the company couldn't carry the extra overhead any longer, Alvarez said.
The planned opening of Rincon has been pushed back to 2011. The delay was made partly because the hospital has had a hard time recruiting physicians for the new campus, at South Houghton and East Drexel roads, he said.
The cuts represent 4 percent to 5 percent of TMC HealthCare's total staff of nearly 3,500. The cuts will return TMC to its 2005 staffing level, Alvarez said. The last staff reduction was in 2000.
TMC HealthCare is the 13th-largest employer in Southern Arizona, according to this year's Star 200 survey.
Contact reporter Becky Pallack at bpallack@azstarnet.com or 520-573-4224.
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 04.26.2007
Around 100 workers at TMC HealthCare lost their jobs Thursday as the company announced a round of cost-cutting.
The layoffs come on top of the elimination of vacant positions from TMC's budget, totaling 150 full-time-equivalent jobs and saving the company $6 million by the end of this year, Chief Executive Officer Frank Alvarez said.
Alvarez said the cuts won't affect patient care, and the positions don't include nurses and bedside caregivers. Those who were let go include managers and support staff members, many of whom transferred to Tucson Medical Center from El Dorado Hospital.
The nonprofit hospital group wasn't profitable in the first quarter of the year. Alvarez said that's because it has been over-staffed since it absorbed most of the 500 workers from El Dorado, which the company bought in 2003 and closed about eight months ago.
"Our costs have outpaced growth in our revenues, and so an immediate correction is necessary to keep the organization moving forward," Alvarez said in a prepared statement. "If we do not make these difficult decisions today, we will not be in a position to serve the community in the future."
Tucson Medical Center was budgeted for 5.5 full-time-equivalent jobs per patient bed, but it was employing about 6.1 positions per bed, and "the margins in health care are tight already," Alvarez said.
The hospital also is burdened by the number of uninsured people treated there, because the company often can't collect for emergency services, Alvarez said. Additionally, TMC started offering "call pay" for physicians who are on call to work, he said.
The news from TMC comes after bad news this week from two other local hospitals. University Physicians Healthcare asked for a higher subsidy from Pima County for its Kino campus, and University Medical Center is losing three of its trauma surgeons.
Stephanie Healy, president of the Hospital Council of Southern Arizona, said the events are "symptomatic of the challenges in health care" as an industry, including lower reimbursements, rising costs and costly work force shortages.
"What's happening at TMC is they're reacting to these market forces and doing what they can to assure they can continue to provide quality patient care, not just now but in the future," she said.
Because of the work force crunch, Healy said, many of those who lost their jobs may be picked up by other health-care employers in Southern Arizona.
TMC's job cuts, which were based on position and seniority, came in management and staff jobs including cooks, laundry workers, maintenance workers, and laboratory and pharmacy staffers. Laid-off workers received severance packages based on their years of service, Alvarez said.
"These are all good people that are impacted," he said. "We're sorry to see them go."
The company wanted to retain El Dorado's staff for the opening of its planned new facility, Rincon Community Hospital. It was scheduled to open next year, but that timeline didn't work out, and the company couldn't carry the extra overhead any longer, Alvarez said.
The planned opening of Rincon has been pushed back to 2011. The delay was made partly because the hospital has had a hard time recruiting physicians for the new campus, at South Houghton and East Drexel roads, he said.
The cuts represent 4 percent to 5 percent of TMC HealthCare's total staff of nearly 3,500. The cuts will return TMC to its 2005 staffing level, Alvarez said. The last staff reduction was in 2000.
TMC HealthCare is the 13th-largest employer in Southern Arizona, according to this year's Star 200 survey.
Contact reporter Becky Pallack at bpallack@azstarnet.com or 520-573-4224.
Labels: Arizona, layoffs, TMC Healthcare
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home