St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center cutting hundreds of jobs, reducing services
St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo says nearly 300 people will lose their jobs and there will be major changes to the campus due to “changing business conditions.”
Word of the layoffs first made news Wednesday after the affected employees got 60-day notices. The medical center employs a little more than 800 people. The medical center hosted a news conference Thursday afternoon to address the coming changes.
The medical center says the surgical unit will be closed, the telemetry floor will be affected, and the intensive care unit will be reduced. The center will also see the number of its inpatient beds reduced from 114 to 42. Some buildings on campus may be removed as part of a master redesign plan.
Officials with St. Mary-Corwin said the new plan came about because of a business climate that saw a reduction in reimbursement rates.
“We are stable, but not growing,” CEO Mike Cafasso said Thursday. “Our efforts to move things forward and sustain and grow have not been successful. It’s time to focus on fewer services, regain financial footing, and go from there.”
Cafasso said the medical center will focus on its strengths, which include its orthopedics and joint replacement center.
Employees will be given severance packages at the end of the 60-day period or when their position is no longer, Cafasso said. He added that the cuts affect staff on every level and that several positions at the senior level will be redesigned. The medical center is working on job placement for those staffers.
Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo issued a statement following St. Mary-Corwin’s announcement and said it’s “incredibly disappointing to see Centura Health take such drastic action without some public discussion or effort to completely comprehend the incredible harm this will bring to our community.”
“While Corwin has been our closest competitor in the Pueblo and Southern Colorado market, nobody is celebrating this decision. It abandons Puebloans in need of critical care and puts additional pressure not only on Parkview Medical Center but other regional health care facilities, many of which are at capacity today,” Parkview said. You can read the full statement by clicking HERE.
KRDO will have more on this story tonight.
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There is talk of major layoffs at St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo, according to our partners at The Chieftain.
Attributing its information to unnamed sources, The Pueblo Chieftain reports that multiple hospital employees were called into meetings on Wednesday and were told by hospital executives that there would be major restructuring, causing layoffs of possibly hundreds of employees.
There was also mention of shutting down the facility’s catheter lab and cutting down the amount of Intensive Care Unit and general medical care beds.
KRDO NewsChannel 13 reached out to the hospital for comment. Its spokesperson said more would be revealed during a news conference on Thursday at 1 p.m.
For more on this story, visit The Pueblo Chieftain’s website.
