Holy Cross Hospital lays off 23 employees
Workers given chance to find other positions within company
FORT LAUDERDALE — Twenty-three employees, mostly in management positions, have been laid off from Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale.
Christine C. Walker, the hospital’s director of marketing, public relations and business development, declined to specify which positions were eliminated out of “sensitivity to the affected colleagues.”
“The majority of the positions did not have direct, hands-on patient care roles,” Walker said in an email.
Roughly 3,000 people work in Holy Cross’ organization, she said in a statement.
“We consistently review and update our strategy, processes and team structures to ensure we are well positioned to provide peoplecentered care to our community,” the statement said. “Recently, these efforts included looking at management to identify how we can more efficiently structure leadership jobs.”
Employees whose positions were eliminated were notified in June and given 60 days at full pay “to find another position in the organization,” Walker said. The 23 departed employees represented the net workforce reduction after that process, she said.
Some of the employees left in August, while some left earlier, she said. Laid-off employees were offered outplacement services and severance packages based on the number of years they were employed at the hospital, Walker said.
“The decision to eliminate or consolidate positions is extremely difficult for all involved, and we thank these dedicated colleagues for their service — both to the people who rely on us and to our mission,” she said.
The nonprofit 557-bed hospital, founded in 1955 and owned by Catholic Health Ministries, has not kept pace in recent years with countywide admissions and occupancy rates, according to data maintained by the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
Admissions to Holy Cross declined from 18,410 in 2010 to 16,940 in 2015, the most recent year data was available. In Broward County overall, admissions to hospitals increased from 230,530 to 241,870 during the same period.
Holy Cross’ occupancy rate — the percentage of beds filled — declined from 44 percent in 2010 to 40.6 percent in 2015, while the countywide occupancy rate declined from 58.1 percent to 55.9 percent during the same span.
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