Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Crozer eliminating 150 positions systemwide
Crozer Health announced Thursday that it reduced 150 positions across its system due to lower overall patient demand and increasing costs.
The cut represents less than 3 percent of the system’s total workforce and involves only a few direct care personnel, Crozer Health officials said, adding that other health systems across Pennsylvania have had to make larger changes.
“We are very proud of our team’s response to COVID-19, and while our frontline employees have never been busier, our operations in other areas have seen drastically reduced workloads based on reduced patient demand,” Crozer Health CEO Peter Adamo said. “It was very difficult to make the decision to reduce positions, but necessary to protect our ability to continue offering quality, compassionate care.”
These cuts are needed, system officials say, to offset losses from overall patient demand even as COVID-19-related
care continues to surge while costs of providing that care continue to increase. Crozer officials said this move is being seen nationwide as thousands of hospitals across the country are adjusting their staffing needs to meet the lower non-COVID patient demand.
In late March, the Pennsylvania Department of Health issued an order for elective surgeries and procedures to be cancelled or postponed. Even as that order has been lifted, officials at Crozer Health said that the levels of elective services has not reached what they were pre-COVID.
Crozer Health officials
said outplacement support and assistance with health care benefits will be offered to each person impacted by the reductions.
“We are committed to providing all the support we can to assist our employees affected by the reduction in positions,” Adamo said. “No one in our industry could have predicted the extraordinary impact this virus would have on health care, and the difficult decision we would be required to make as a result.”
Earlier this year, in April, the system closed most operations at Springfield Hospital, impacting the positions of 30 nurses, as all of the units, except for the
Emergency Department, were shut until June. Hospital officials said they were instituting a workplace flex program as non-COVID patient volumes significantly decreased. The flex program is anticipated to stay in place until a COVID-19 all-clear is announced.
Offering services at more than 150 locations, Crozer Health includes CrozerChester Medical Center, Delaware County Memorial Hospital, Taylor Hospital and Springfield Hospital, four outpatient centers, two surgery centers and a network of providers and practices through the Crozer Health Medical Group.