Cost-cutting moves result in job losses at Memorial, Penrose

Penrose-St. Francis Health Services and Memorial Health System have laid off a total of 14 people in recent months as they've reorganized certain operations.

The workers - nine at Penrose and five at Memorial - represent a tiny fraction of the combined 6,500-person workforce at the two Colorado Springs hospital systems. But the cuts are part of a bigger money-saving strategy by the hospitals that's included sending workers home at slow times, moving people into other areas, and cutting positions through attrition and partial hiring freezes.

Both hospitals have avoided major layoffs, but like almost all institutions and companies, they have been hurt by the recession. Patients are putting off elective procedures, and an increasing number of people are losing their insurance or failing to pay their medical bills.

Officials for the two hospitals say the cost-cutting moves were undertaken to make their operations more efficient, something that made sense even if their numbers were not down.

Gary Morse, vice president of human resources for Penrose-St. Francis, said the nine employees - one of them based in Pueblo - were let go as a result of consolidating some departments, adding new technology, and adjusting staff-to-patient loads at an urgent care center.

A director of patient access at St. Francis Hospital was let go, for example, after those functions were placed under one director and relocated to Penrose Hospital.

Memorial's five employees were laid off as the hospital combined certain duties that had been duplicated at its central and north hospitals, said spokesman Chris Valentine. Four of the five employees were in management roles.

Penrose's director had to sign an agreement not to pursue employment at Memorial Health System in order to receive her six months' severance, Morse said. Memorial did not include such a stipulation for its managers.
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