Exec positions cut at St. Edward in Fort Smith

Job cuts in the St. Louis-based Sisters of Mercy Health System have resulted in 11 lost jobs at St. Edward Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith — with at least eight of those jobs being high-level executives involved in patient care and administration.

According to a statement, Sisters of Mercy has cut 226 positions in its four-state operating area, with 89 of those being executive cuts and 137 being “co-worker roles.” The cuts — representing less than 1% of Mercy’s 36,000 employees — were announced internally Thursday morning (March 25).

“The structure more closely connects all operational areas throughout Mercy’s four-state area and streamlines leadership to better support the delivery of care and services within the more than 240 unique communities served by Mercy,” noted the statement.

Two sources confirmed with The City Wire that top execs in key departments in Fort Smith were cut. In addition to the 11 cuts in Fort Smith, the Sisters of Mercy cut two positions at the Mercy Health System of Northwest Arkansas.

According to one of the sources, the cuts were made to “streamline the process” and were made in such a way to be “patient-centric.”

“The question is, ‘Will that be the way it works out?’” the source noted.
 
The Mercy statement said co-workers will receive a severance package including compensation and benefits for a period of time, depending on their position and length of service with Mercy.

Job cuts in the health care sector are not a surprise to those in the industry. A survey of more than 1,200 health care executives conducted by HealthLeaders Media indicates that 36% say cost reduction is a top priority in 2010, up from 21% in 2009. Also, 19% predict more layoffs in 2010. As to uncompensated care numbers, 80% expect that to become worse in 2010.

“The recession caused a nationwide shift in priorities last year, so it’s not surprising that after watching their once bouyant financials plummet, healthcare CFOs would also reshuffle their priorities. The result: Quality was moved down as a priority in favor of physician recruitment and cost reduction,” noted a summary in the HealthLeaders report.

The report also showed that 72.67% of the more than 1,200 executives disapproved of President Barack Obama’s job performance related to healthcare reform; 81.75% disapproved of Congressional Democrats efforts related to healthcare reform; and 63% disapproved of the work of Congressional Republicans.