Jackson Health System Announces Layoffs

Jackson said it notified those employees on Monday that their positions would be eliminated by January. The other 57 listed in the WARN notice to the state are union employees with bumping rights who are being reassigned, according to Robert Alonso, VP of public relations and marketing for Jackson Health System.

"Jackson has different labor unions that we work with and as part of our contracts we have to follow protocol when there is a service reduction," Alonso said. "In this case, the initial impact was to be 150 employees, but there were a lot of vacancies not posted so we were able to put them in positions that were frozen since June.

The public hospital said in a statement that the economic downturn, a decline in tax and funding support, a backlog of Medicaid payments and significant increases in the amount of charity care it must provide have had a “severe impact” on its operations.

The facilities impacted are:

• North Miami Health Center
• Juanita Mann - Northside Shopping Center
• Jackson North Medical Center Mental Health Unit
• Jackson South Wound Care Unit
• Broward Liver Transplant
• Heart & Lung Transplant

When she took over as president and CEO of Jackson Health System in June, Dr. Eneida Roldan faced a $168 million deficit. However, she has since implemented cost-cutting measures that have saved $61.7 million, said Alonso. Jackson still faces a $107 million budget deficit, which is why the layoffs were necessary, he said.

The health system said it cut 15 consulting contracts totaling $3.5 million and is realizing $5 million in savings through reductions in overtime and agency costs.

“Despite these accomplishments, Jackson’s leadership team is now forced to take action on plans discussed during the budget process, which include eliminating and reducing some of the services that Jackson currently provides to the community, in order to further reduce costs,” it said in a news release.

Jackson said it is working to help patients find care at other facilities and employees impacted by the cuts to find other positions.

Jackson said it also initiated two requests for proposals: one to outsource correctional health services, and a second seeking proposals from qualified licensed providers of skilled nursing home care interested in the transfer of its operational licenses for two long-term care centers.