ValleyCare, Sharon Regional Furlough Employees

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — ValleyCare Health System of Ohio announced Thursday it is cutting its workforce, although it provided no details on how many positions, what departments are being affected, timing or whether the downsizing is temporary.

Valley Care is a subsidiary of Community Health Systems Inc. in Franklin, Tenn. It operates Northside Medical Center in Youngstown, Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren and Northside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland along with related health-care services in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Earlier this year, CHS announced it was exploring several options, including a potential sale of its operations.

“We recently made the difficult decision to furlough and reduce hours for some employees,” ValleyCare said in a statement emailed by Trish Hrina, vice president of marketing and public relations.

“Our hospitals regularly review and adjust staffing based on the number of patients in our care and their medical needs,” the statement continued. “We remain focused on carefully managing operations to support our commitment to provide high quality healthcare services to our community.”

CHS also operates Sharon Regional Health System in Sharon, Pa. Lisa DiMuccio-Zgela, Sharon Regional director of marketing and community relations, acknowledged this morning that her organization had implemented staffing changes to serve patient volume.

“Some of our employees are being placed on furlough and we are reducing hours for some positions,” she said in an email. “Furloughed employees will retain their positions and those who are eligible will keep their benefits for up to 90 days if necessary.”

In September, CHS confirmed it was “exploring a variety of options with financial sponsors, as well as other potential alternatives.” Discussions at the time were at a preliminary stage with no timeline set for its review.

The company reiterated those positions earlier this month, when it announced lower than expected financial results for the third quarter.

Net operating revenues for the period were down 9.6% from a year ago. Revenues for the three months ended Sept. 30 totaled $4.38 billion, down from $4.85 billion from the third quarter of 2015.

Total admissions were down 12.4% and total adjusted admissions decreased 13.0% compared with the same period in 2015.

Pictured: Northside Medical Center in Youngstown.

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