Baton Rouge General Hospital began notifying employees Thursday that between 50 and 60 administrative and back office positions will be eliminated over the next 30 to 90 days—a move a spokeswoman says will save the hospital $2.5 million.
Most of the affected positions are based at the hospital’s main campus on Bluebonnet Boulevard. However, the layoffs are prompted, at least in part, by changes in patient volume since the closure earlier this year of the hospital’s Mid CIty emergency room.
“With the consolidation of Emergency Department services earlier this year, we experienced shifts in patient volumes that changed our organizational needs,” says hospital president and CEO Mark Slyter in a prepared statement. “While many patient care areas continue to grow, our overall organization structure is in need of realignment.”
In an email about the situation to hospital employees, Slyter says while hospital operations are “sound, lean and efficient” the time has come “to make adjustments in our organization’s administrative, business and corporate structure.”
Slyter goes on to say bedside care will not be affected and that the hospital will try to find vacant positions internally for those whose positions are being eliminated.
Baton Rouge General currently has 3,200 employees at its two campuses so eliminating 60 positions represents fewer than 2% of the total workforce.
The move comes nearly six months after the hospital shuttered its Mid City emergency room, saying it could no longer afford to keep it open. In the months since, consultants have been evaluating alternative uses for the Mid City campus, which remains open as a much smaller acute-care facility. A report and recommendations from the consultants is expected in the fourth quarter.
Baton Rouge Board chair Janice Pellar says hospital officials did not make the decision lightly.
“It’s heartbreaking that even one employee is personally impacted by this,” she says. “But we’re committed to helping employees make a successful transition and we are fully confident this effort will help BRG maintain a strong, positive trajectory moving forward.”
—Stephanie Riegel
