Max Jarman
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 22, 2000

St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center has offered approximately 800 employees voluntarily severance packages ahead of possible layoffs next year.

The offer was made Wednesday to all non-management employees not involved in direct patient care. The hospital has about 4,000 employees.

The central Phoenix facility faces a serious financial shortfall and is looking at ways to cut costs and spur revenues. Without buyouts, the hospital estimates that it could end up $16million to $18 million in the hole for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Linda Hunt, president and chief administrative officer, wouldn't say how many positions the hospital may have to eliminate.

"It depends on how many (employees) voluntarily leave and how we do getting our revenue up," she said.

Those who do take a package will receive a lump-sum payment roughly equal to two weeks' pay for each year of service. Health insurance would be paid through the end of January, and there would be no enhancement to individual pensions.

"Frankly, I don't expect many people to take the offer," she said. "But the employees said they wanted more options."

Employees can sign up for the voluntary severance until Dec. 29. The last day of employment for workers who do take the package would be Jan. 12.

In a Dec. 14 memo that first advised employees of possible layoffs, Hunt blamed the hospital's poor performance on higher nursing costs and shorter patient stays due to HMO cutbacks.

In addition, Mercy Care Plan, the service provider to Arizona's poor that the hospital owns with Tucson's Carondelet Healthcare, is $3.6million in the red because of increased demand for services by indigent patients.

The hospital also has taken over responsibility for patient billing. For the past 18 months, that function had been handled by a shared service operation under the umbrella of the hospital's parent, Catholic Healthcare West. Persistent collection problems with that system have been blamed on the untimely submission of bills.

AZ Central

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2000