The financially ailing Southern Regional Medical Center is undergoing a major restructuring that includes cutting 80 jobs.
Southern Regional Health System Inc., the parent company of the Clayton hospital, said the employees impacted by the staff reductions were told this week. The cuts, which include management jobs, are throughout the health system. No physicians were affected. Although some nursing positions have been eliminated, hospital spokesperson Claudia Hall said “nurse-to-patient ratios on inpatient floors have not been affected by the restructuring.”
The decision was made after officials at the 331-bed hospital looked at data from hospitals that are a similar size and determined cuts were needed.
“We have made a commitment to increase efficiencies and reduce costs,” Southern Regional CEO Kim Ryan said.
As part of the restructuring, the hospital has started programs aimed at improving quality of patient care, enhancing the emergency room care, improving physician satisfaction, and restoring surgical and other revenue-generating services to help offset losses tied to uncompensated care. Ryan has been meeting with county and community leaders over the past few weeks to obtain more financial support.
Clayton currently pays $616,667 a month to help defray the hospital’s indigent care costs. Those payments are slated to end in June. Last week, hospital officials asked the county to accelerate the payments so the hospital could meet various operational expenses such as payments to pharmaceutical and medical suppliers and other vendors. The hospital is in talks with the county about extending the payments another year.
In addition to those payments, Clayton voters approved a SPLOST plan last year that called for allocating about $50 million to the hospital to help pay down its debt and purchase much-needed equipment.
Clayton Commission Chairman Jeff Turner said Ryan is slated to outline the hospital’s restructuring plan to him on Monday. The rest of the commissioners will see it sometime next week as well. The restructuring plan is one part of Ryan’s four-part business plan for the hospital.
“I’d hate to see anybody lose their jobs,” Turner said Thursday after learning of the hospital’s job cuts. “But the hospital has to take drastic measures to stop losing money.”
Ryan said the restructuring is necessary for the hospital’s long-term survival. Hospital officials blamed the hospital’s problems on an increase in uncompensated care and Medicaid; a drop in managed care volume and patient care volume overall, especially surgical volumes; and cuts in federal and state funding.
“In making decisions on organizational changes, we considered the importance of maintaining facilities, safety and quality of care priorities,” Ryan said. “Of course, we would prefer to not be in the financial position we are in, and that’s why we’re also putting a focus on restoring revenues from patient care volume.”
Wednesday’s announcement comes a little over a week after an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation of the hospital. The investigation found a troubled hospital swamped with indigent cases and struggling because of a dramatic drop in the number of patients with private insurance in recent years. The hospital also had earned poor marks on quality and patient satisfaction surveys — areas the hospital is trying to improve.
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