22 positions cut to save $1.8m
By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | November 20, 2009
Pressed by growing uncertainty in the health care industry, Northeast Hospital Corp., parent company of Beverly Hospital and an outpatient affiliate in neighboring Danvers, said it has eliminated 22 jobs in an effort to become leaner and more efficient.
The job cuts, which include 11 vacant positions and layoffs of 11 employees ranging from managers and assistants to secretaries, will save the Beverly health care provider about $1.8 million annually in salary and benefits.
Chip Payson, vice president of external affairs, said the layoffs were based on organizational needs. He said no doctors or staff nurses lost jobs and no patient services would be affected at Beverly Hospital or Beverly Hospital at Danvers.
“These are difficult decisions to make for a community hospital,’’ Payson said. “We’ve got a responsibility to provide effective health care, and part of that is taking a hard look at how we operate.’’
Payson said Northeast earlier this year hired management consulting firm FTI to examine its hospitals’ operations, productivity, and staffing structure in light of the uncertainty over state and federal health care reform and Medicare and private payer reimbursement.
Northeast’s new chief executive, Ken Hanover, who arrived in mid-October from Health Alliance of Cincinnati, signed off on the FTI recommendations to reduce the number of jobs and reassign some duties, Payson said. Northeast now has about 2,800 employees.
The organization had been without a chief executive since last November, when Hanover’s predecessor, Stephen R. Laverty resigned after months of conflict with doctors and nurses. Both groups ultimately took votes of no confidence in Laverty.
Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.
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