St. Vincent’s Laying Off Workers In Merger Process (UPDATED)

Three months after a buyout of a Hot Springs hospital, workforce reductions are taking place in the St. Vincent Health System.

In early April, St. Vincent’s parent company, Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), acquired Mercy Hot Springs hospital in the Spa City. On Thursday (June 26), CHI St. Vincent announced layoffs related to the “integration process” that will affect 91 workers at St. Vincent and 157 positions in total.

“The change of membership of the Hot Springs health ministry on April 1, 2014 to CHI St. Vincent created a new, strong, vibrant, Catholic integrated system of hospitals, physician clinics, outpatient services, and an accountable care organization (the Arkansas Health Network) in central and southwest Arkansas,” a CHI St. Vincent statement read. “To accelerate the integration process, the Board and leadership of CHI St. Vincent embarked on a journey to transform every aspect of the ministry from how the boards operate to how leadership is structured to how the system improves the quality, experience, and safety of patient care.

“As part of the integration process, an intense review of all CHI St. Vincent ministries has been underway to address bringing together two historically separate organizations by consolidating several key corporate functions, maintaining a lean leadership structure, and ensuring consistent and equitable operations across the health system. As a result of this review, CHI St. Vincent will be reducing 157 positions in a total workforce of more than 4,500. From the positions impacted, there will be no more than 91 impacted individuals at CHI St. Vincent,” the statement also said.

Impacted workers at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs have been instructed to follow Mercy’s severance policy per the agreement with Mercy in the transfer of membership to CHI St. Vincent. The company said affected workers at all other locations will follow CHI St. Vincent’s standard severance policy.

“Every attempt was made to also minimize the actual number of impacted co-workers by evaluating job openings, utilizing normal turnover, and shifting co-workers to different areas. Where possible, we did attempt to address those co-workers not meeting performance expectations,” the CHI St. Vincent statement said.

CHI St. Vincent CEO Peter Banko, who appeared on Talk Business & Politics recently, said the decision is a difficult one.

“Today is a very difficult day for our ministry and our first task is to support those co-workers that are leaving us because our decisions are impacting good people and their families,” said Banko. “Our second task is to continue to stay focused on our basic philosophy that has served us well for 126 years – the patient comes first.”