In recent years, hospitals and health systems across the United States have faced a significant challenge: reducing staff. New statistics prove that more than 60 hospitals have become victims of staff reduction, which is effective for different positions in the healthcare sphere. But why are such cuts being carried out, especially in one segment of the economy where employment has been historically considered secure? This article will analyze the key causes for hospitals cutting jobs, the consequences for HLs and patient care, and the outlook for healthcare employment.
The State of Healthcare Employment in the USA
Healthcare has been one of the sectors with traditionally predictable employment growth in the United States due to continued population aging, demand for healthcare services, and improvement in technologies. However, the changes that have occurred in the economy have made a clear turnaround from such recent views. Higher operating expenses, fewer inpatient admissions, and shifts in healthcare trends have forced numerous healthcare organizations to transform, resulting in hospitals cutting jobs.
For many, health systems are currently operating under the imperative of continuing to survive financially. Hospitals are showing significant and growing operating deficits and are considering certain steps to remain financially viable.
How Hospitals Are Restructuring
Layoffs and Staffing Realignment
It is becoming common for many hospitals to opt for cutting jobs or workforce changes to sustain themselves financially. These actions can take place in a single department, but they more often happen across multiple departments, within the administration, clinical, and support disciplines. Through changes in staffing patterns, hospitals seek to improve productivity without necessarily sacrifice quality.
Outsourcing and Telemedicine
Private organisations notably rely more on outsourcing by contracting with contents that are not clinical to outside suppliers. Telemedicine has also emerged and enabled hospitals to remotely deliver specific specialties’ services. These strategies are sweeping away in person staff necessities and assist in decreasing operating expenses.
Efficiency Measures
There has been enormous investment in technology to enhance health systems’ productivity. Digitools such as electronic records or data-backed diagnostic solutions make work easier and even eliminate the overwhelming requirement of a workforce. Other measures concern restructuring Departments, for instance, joining together two Departments, meaning that the work done by two different teams can be done by a single team.
Case Examples of Hospitals Cutting Jobs
October 2024: Job Cuts Across Multiple States
Insight Health System in Flint, Michigan, reportedly let go of workers at Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Ohio after buying the hospitals from Steward Health Care that recently filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
Bassett Healthcare Network in Cooperstown, New York, cut 100 administration jobs across its hospitals and clinics; employees can apply for other positions within the network.
Management layoff plan at Springfield-based Baystate Health: The organization has been working under a lot of financial pressures recently.
In Covina, California, Emanate Health reported a discharging of 107 employees, with a layoff date of Dec. 9, 2014 was partly attributed to closure of Emanate Health Home Care and Emanate Health Imaging.
Another large healthcare company, Kaiser Permanente, based in Oakland, California, is expected to lay off 20 workers, including IT and business staff, at its California sites.
Steward Health Care in September issued a WARN notice covering 255 workers at St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Center in Phoenix on October 1.
September 2024: Cutbacks Continue Amid Rising Costs
Beth Israel Lahey Health in Cambridge for example let workers go across the 14 affiliated hospitals to reduce its expenses.
This forced the nursing mother professionals to search for new employers, for instance, University of Southern California Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale has recently shut down its labor and delivery services and thus dismissed about sixty-five of their employees.
Schenectady-based Ellis Medicine axed 33 of its workers because it shut down its nursing home and rehabilitation facility.
In November, Signature Psychiatric Hospital shut down its sites in Kansas City and Liberty, Missouri, that led to 154 terminations of employment, even though the company provided jobs for both full-time and part-time workers.
Samaritan Health Services in Corvallis, Oregon, said that it would dismiss around 80 employees or a third of its workforce in the hospital it plans to reduce the compensation of its senior leaders by 7.5%.
August 2024: Major Layoffs Due to Closures
Steward Health Care started 944 termination processes in Ohio as a result of hospital shutdowns in Trumbull Regional Medical Center, Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, and other associated facilities.
1000 employees of Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, working in front-line management and other ranks, were laid off in what could be considered the company’s 5% downsizing.
July 2024: Further Workforce Reductions
After the budget review, Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago laid off just a little, according to the report.
CHI CommonSpirit Health fired employees in Oregon and Tennessee with employers at CHI Mercy Health-Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, Oregon and CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Chicago’s Howard Brown Health, a federally qualified health center, laid off 43 employees on Aug. 30, equaling 7% of its workforce.
Impact on Healthcare Workers and Patient Care
Effects on Staff Morale and Workload
For healthcare professionals, these hospital cutting jobs are particularly difficult. Many workers experience increased workloads, higher stress levels, and concerns about job security. Remaining staff may face the challenge of doing more with less, leading to burnout and impacting staff morale.
Patient Care Concerns
The problem with having a small number of employees means that some hospitals are at risk of diminishing the quality of patient care they can offer. Fewer employees assume that healthcare organisations must exert extra effort in ensuring that their services’ quality remains high, and their waiting times reasonable, which affects the patients’ experiences. However, many hospitals are trying to mitigate job losses with quality care by among them embracing hospital efficiency strategies.
What This Means for the Future of Healthcare Employment
Predicted Trends
What currently appears as another round of job losses could be a change in the healthcare employment landscape. Given the current and likely future changes in the financial and operational environment for hospitals and health systems, future hiring will diminish the importance of traditional inpatient positions while shifting towards outpatient and telemedicine jobs. Providers may require developing new competencies for the demands arising in telemedicine or for new types of outpatient treatments.
Opportunities for Adaptation
For healthcare professionals, change may imply looking for work opportunities consistent with the new trend in the sector, like outpatient care, technology-based settings, or support of telemedicine services. Training in digital health and telemedicine might work as a hedge in the changing job market.
Conclusion
The healthcare sector is experiencing significant transformation, and professional layoffs are increasingly common in hospitals because healthcare systems aim to remain financially effective. Some of the main drivers of this trend are increasing operation costs, changes in patient demands, labor costs, and ever-evolving regulations. In this context, when hospitals are being redesigned, it is done to shape the cost and, more importantly, the quality of future care delivery. Healthcare employees or prospective healthcare employees can benefit from these trends to decipher the changing job market and be ready to embrace future trends in the employment marketplace.
