Wellstar lays off more than 700 corporate workers

Wellstar Health System, one of Georgia’s largest hospital operators, said Tuesday it is laying off hundreds of corporate workers in an effort to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency.

The Marietta-based nonprofit health system said it will eliminate 761 roles within its Wellstar Medical Group, which offers services across various medical specialties.

The layoffs represent about 2% of Wellstar’s workforce of more than 35,000 employees, according to a statement provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The affected roles span corporate, shared services and administrative functions. The cuts will not affect “frontline care team roles,” such as doctors or nurses, the system said.

“The healthcare industry is highly regulated and quickly evolving with changing patient needs and increasing financial pressures, which makes our ability to efficiently connect people to the right resources and services at the right time increasingly important,” Wellstar spokesperson Matthew O’Connor said in a statement Tuesday evening.

The healthcare and social assistance sector has been a bright spot for hiring in Georgia, adding more than 23,000 jobs in the 12 months that ended in June, according to the state Department of Labor.

Wellstar operates 11 hospitals across the state, according to its website, including its flagship Kennestone Hospital in Cobb, North Fulton Medical Center and Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia and MCG Health Medical Center in Augusta. The health system also operates hundreds of care locations.

O’Connor added that Wellstar is assessing its structure and processes, aiming to be more agile to improve access to healthcare across the Southeast.

“To be more agile, we are reducing layers of management and streamlining operations — moving decision-making closer to the people who care for patients every day — as we increase our operational efficiency and bend the cost curve,” he said.