http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20130730/NEWS01/130739957/pottstown-memorial-medical-center-furloughs-30-workers-for-90-days
Pottstown Memorial Medical Center furloughs 30 workers for 90 days
- By Evan Brandt
ebrandt@21st-centurymedia.com - Posted: Tuesday, 07/30/13 08:25 pm
Updated: Tuesday, 07/30/13 08:26 pm
21st Century Media photo by John Strickler Pottstown Memorial Medical Center.
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POTTSTOWN — Pottstown Memorial Medical Center has instituted three-month furloughs for dozens of its employees and one of its units will be closed.
“We are implementing furloughs for less than 4 percent of employees across our hospital. The furloughs impact both (union) represented and non-represented employees. Impacted employees are being reassigned to other open positions as possible,” hospital spokeswoman Debra Bennis wrote in an email Tuesday.
The exact number of total employees at the hospital was not immediately confirmed by hospital officials, and a phone message asking exactly how many people have been furloughed was not immediately answered by the hospital.
The statement Bennis provided included no information about what departments experienced the furloughs. However, one source said the hospital employs 1,000 people and that 3 percent of those, or 30 employees, were given 90-day mandatory furloughs on July 25.
The source also indicated that none of the furloughs were in clinical jobs and most occurred in administrative posts.
“These furloughs will not impact the care provided for our patients,” Bennis wrote. “We remain focused on efficient operations and committed to providing excellent health care services for our patients and the community.”
The cutbacks are part of a national trend in the health care industry.
Phoenixville Hospital furloughs come on heels of $4B acquisition deal
By Evan Brandt
ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
Wednesday, July 31,2013
PHOENIXVILLE — One day after Pottstown Memorial Medical Center furloughed 30 employees for 90 days, The Mercury has confirmed that similar furloughs occurred at Phoenixville Hospital.
Phoenixville Hospital spokesperson Lori Cunningham confirmed Thursday that the full-time equivalent of 24 employees in “clinical, non-clinical support and administrative departments” have been furloughed.
News of the staff reduction occurs at the same time that the company that owns both hospitals, Tennessee-based Community Health Systems Inc., is planning a $3.9 billion purchase of Florida-based Health Management Associates Inc., which also operates hospitals around the country.
Cunningham said the furloughs at Phoenixville, which she described as “not scheduling a small number of employees in various departments,” have “no definitive time line. As always, staffing is dependent upon patient volume and clinical needs.”
In an email response to an inquiry from The Mercury, Cunningham also wrote “as can happen in the summer, our current patient volumes are lower, and we hope this will only be short-term. We want to retain our employees and will continue to monitor our patient volumes to call back staff as needed.”
She added, “this action is intended to preserve jobs for the long-term, and as volumes rebound, we will adjust our staffing accordingly.”
According to an Associated Press report, CHS plans to pay a combination of cash and stock for Health Management Associates, based in Naples, Fla. also known as HMA.
CHS said the deal, if completed, would cost $3.9 billion, or $7.6 billion when assumed debt is included in the calculation.
The purchase has been approved by the board of directors at both companies, however, it must still pass muster with regulators and HMA stockholders, according to the wire service.
But that approval might be hard to get, given that HMA is currently being investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General regarding relationships between physicians and emergency room operations.
The deal that CHS has announced asks investors to assume some of the risk that arises from that investigation, holding back some of the purchase price depending on the outcome of the investigation.
But the stock market reacted poorly to that idea, at least initially, with HMA shares sinking almost 11 percent Tuesday after the deal was announced, AP reported.
Adding to HMA’s headaches is its Tuesday announcement that it expects second-quarter earnings to come in well below Wall Street expectations.
“It’s a really poor performance, and if ever there was a reason for change in control, this was it,” said Sheryl Skolnick, an analyst who follows the company for CRT Capital Group.
Hospitals have been struggling with declining admissions, as patients continue to cut back on their use of the health care system, a trend that started a few years ago during the recession.
Federal funding cuts and growing populations of uninsured patients also have pressured profitability, according to AP.
“Unfortunately, the economic realities of our individual markets continue to hamper our growth, especially in smaller markets,” CHS Chairman and CEO Wayne T. Smith told analysts during a conference call.
Second-quarter earnings for CHS have plunged by 64 percent as revenue slips.
The federal health care overhaul is expected to help ease the pressure hospitals are facing by reducing the number of uninsured patients they treat. Starting next year, the overhaul will provide income-based tax credits to help people buy coverage, and the state-and-federally funded Medicaid program will expand its coverage in several states, AP reported.
CHS said its planned acquisition of HMA will create a company that’s well positioned to benefit from the overhaul.
The companies expect the deal to close in the first quarter of 2014, if it gets anti-trust clearance and 70 percent of HMA shares are voted in favor of it.
The deal would create a chain with about 206 hospitals in 29 states with a heavy presence in the South.
That would make it the largest hospital operator based on locations.
CHS owns 16 hospitals in Pennsylvania, the state with the company’s second largest set of hospitals.
At 18, only Texas has more CHS-owned hospitals than Pennsylvania.
Locally, in addition to Pottstown and Phoenixville hospitals, CHS owns Brandywine Hospital, Chestnut Hill Hospital, Jennersville Regional Hospital and Memorial Hospital in York.
It also owns hospitals in Scranton, Easton, Wilkes-Barre, Sunbury and Lock Haven.
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