The following hospital and health system layoffs and workforce reductions were announced or implemented this year and affected more than 100 employees. They are listed below by number of positions affected.
1. Cleveland Clinic cut several hundred open positions in January, and about 700 employees accepted early retirement offers as part of the system's plan to cut $330 million.
2. State University of New York in Brooklyn laid off 600 nurses, doctors, technicians, patient care associates and support services staff at Long Island College Hospital in March. SUNY said the layoffs were part of an effort to align staffing levels with patient volume and available services.
3. Northern Berkshire Healthcare in North Adams, Mass., closed North Adams Regional Hospital, its home health facility and its three hospital-owned physician practices in March. The system said the layoffs were due to a decrease in patient volume. This affected about 530 full- and part-time employees.
4. KentuckyOne Health in Louisville laid off 500 employees, and an additional 200 vacant positions were eliminated in February as part of the system's attempt to cut $218 million from its budget by the end of the fiscal year 2015.
5. Crittenden Regional Hospital in West Memphis, Ark., will close its doors, effective Sept. 7, 2014. Crittenden stopped admitting new patients Aug. 25. Approximately 400 employees will be affected by the hospital's closing.
6. Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, Calif., a Sutter Health affiliate, eliminated 358 jobs in January, affecting the equivalent of 175 full-time positions. Alta Bates Summit said it closed its skilled nursing facility in Oakland and its inpatient infusion center due to decreased patient volumes.
7. Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, N.C., eliminated 350 jobs in May. The health system said they made the cuts to help close the increasing gap between raised expenses and declining reimbursement from federal and state health insurance and other sources of revenue.
8. Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare eliminated 350 jobs through layoffs and attrition in June. About 230 employees will be laid off or leave through buyouts and retirement, while the rest of the positions are vacant.
9. University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia is planning to close its rehabilitation center on October 31, affecting the 323 employees who staff the long-term acute-care hospital.
10. Mercy, based in Chesterfield, Mo., laid off 300 employees across three states in June. The health system attributed the workforce reduction to a lack of Medicaid expansion in most of the states it serves.
11. University Medical Center in Las Vegas laid off 285 employees this August in its second round of layoffs this year. The layoff affected nurses, office assistants and other supporting staff, and UMC also ended its outpatient oncology, outpatient pharmacy and some clinic services. Earlier this year, 105 employees were laid off when UMC closed four urgent care centers.
12. Crozer-Keystone Health System in Springfield, Pa., laid of 250 physicians and managers. The health system attributed the layoffs to decreased admissions, lower Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and an increase in visits from uninsured or Medicaid-covered patients.
13. Kindred Healthcare, based in Louisville, Ky., eliminated 246 jobs when it closed two Texas hospitals in June. The transitional and extended-stay hospital operator closed its 83-bed location in Channelview, which eliminated 139 jobs, and its 86-bed facility Houston, which cut 107 jobs.
14. Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., cut 188 medical transcriptionist jobs in Wisconsin in June. Mayo Clinic said the layoffs were applied as a result of an outsourcing contract to reduce costs.
15. Mountain States Health Alliance, based in Johnson City, Tenn., said it eliminated 161 jobs in January in a cost-cutting move. MSHA cited declined reimbursements and lower patient volumes as the reason for the reduction of employees. The system said direct patient care areas would not be affected.
16. Yukon-Kushokwim Health in Bethel, Alaska, eliminated 160 jobs when it laid off 110 employees and left 50 positions empty in June. The health system said the layoffs were part of a plan to decrease expenses. Yukon-Kushokwim Health includes one regional hospital and several community clinics that serve 58 rural communities in southwest Alaska.
17. St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif., laid off 152 employees and left 18 positions vacant in February. The hospital attributed the layoffs to a cost-cutting initiative, and plans to cut 5 percent of its budget for the current fiscal year in response to low patient volumes and reimbursement cuts.
18. Union Hospital in Terre Haute and Clinton, Ind., plans to eliminate 150 jobs by the end of the year. The hospital system said its revenue was greatly impacted by the sequester and cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Additionally, Union Hospital reported a drop of roughly 10 percent in overnight patient stays.
19. Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa laid off 29 employees and left 107 positions vacant in May. Mercy said they made the cuts in order to cut $15 million in spending. Those affected by the layoffs were in management or support positions and were not directly involved in patient care. Mercy Medical Center President Robert Ritz cited low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, as well as the two-midnight rule as reasons for the workforce reduction.
20. Highmark, based in Pittsburgh, laid off 232 employees between one cut of 132 information technology and sales employees in February and another of 100 health plan employees in March. Officials say these layoffs were necessary in order to align the company's workforce with their financial strategies.
21. MaineGeneral Health in Augusta, Maine, eliminated 128 jobs by laying off 16 employees and cutting 112 empty full-time positions in July. Two of the positions were directly involved in patient care, and several manager positions were also eliminated. The system said overstaffing combined with reduced reimbursements for Medicare and other factors led to the need for layoffs.
22. Meritus Health in Hagerstown, Md., laid off 60 employees and eliminated an additional 60 vacant positions in February in an effort to meet its 2014 budget. The 120 positions represent a 4 percent cut to Meritus Health's overall workforce.
23. Indiana University Health in Bloomington will lay off 120 employees when it closes its proton therapy center at the end of this year. IU Health said advancements in cancer treatment, declining reimbursement rates for the proton treatment and aging equipment made the center financially unstable, leading to the facility's closing.
24. High Point (N.C.) Regional Health eliminated 115 jobs, or 5 percent of its workforce this May. High Point said they made the cuts in an effort to reduce spending after experiencing lower patient volumes and reduced reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid. High Point Regional Health is part of Chapel Hill-based UNC Health Care. Both clinical and non-clinical employees were affected by the workforce reduction.
25. Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, Calif., eliminated 111 positions this August, including 51 layoffs. Kern attributed the layoffs as part of an initiative to reduce spending.
26. Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, Calif., eliminated 111 positions, or about 10 percent of its staff, this summer. Affected employees were given a 90-day notice in May. Queen of the Valley also closed four outpatient units, including its wound care clinic, the WorkHealth Occupation Health Services, the cardiac rehabilitation clinic and its forensics clinic.
27. St. Francis Healthcare of Hawaii in Honolulu said it laid off 110 employees and eliminated its hospice and home health services to achieve financial sustainability. The system ceased offering a home health program that served patients on Oahu and Kauai on June 30, and plans to close one hospice unit in Ewa Oahu by September 30.
28. University Medical Center in Las Vegas laid off 105 employees — including nurses, pharmacy technicians, lab assistants and radiology technologists, among other positions — when it closed four care centers in April. The University Medical Center said a decrease in patient volume combined with declining reimbursement drove the decision to close the centers.
29. University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care in Worcester eliminated 103 full-time equivalent positions, including nurses, this June in its third workforce reduction in less than a year. While some employees were laid off, the loss of 103 positions also came through reducing employee hours and leaving positions vacant. UMass said the layoffs were a result of reduced patient volumes and demand for certain services.
30. Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus, N.J., eliminated 102 positions in July. Meadowlands attributed the layoffs to financial difficulties and low patient volumes. The 230-bed, for-profit hospital had an average of 25 inpatients after its patient count fell more than 30 percent between May and July.
31. Kaiser Permanente, based in Oakland, Calif., laid off 101 employees of Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, which operates one hospital and 20 clinics on three Hawaii islands. The layoffs were issued in February and affected 66 security guards and 16 transporters, among other positions. They health system attributed the layoffs to organizational restructuring for improving operations.