UC Irvine Health laying off 175 employees

UC Irvine Health will let go 175 employees, along with another 79 vacant positions being eliminated.

The layoffs were announced Oct. 3 in an email sent by UC Irvine Health CEO Howard Federoff, according to the Orange County Register.

“We have reduced expenses, improved efficiencies, and increased revenue by growing our clinical services—but it has not been enough to avoid reductions in staff,” Federoff wrote.

“Without immediate action, our expenses will exceed our operating revenue this fiscal year,” he said. The layoffs “will secure long-term stability for UC Irvine Health, our patients and the communities we serve.”

Physicians and teaching positions were not being cut. The California Nurses Association said six nursing positions were being eliminated, while 68 workers in technical or service jobs would be let go, according to the American Federation American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

UC Irvine's medical center “is a public hospital that has a staffing and priorities problem—not a profit problem,” said AFSCME spokesman Todd Stenhouse.

UC Irvine spokesman John Murray told the Los Angeles City News Service the hospital was been pressured financially by changes in reimbursements from Medicare and private insurers.

“Reimbursements are somewhat flat, and there’s an increasing demand on academic centers across the country,” Murray said. “Academic medical centers like UCLA, NYU, Stanford, all these systems have to support an academic enterprise, a school of medicine, as well as research, so our costs are higher and we have to become more efficient.”

The email to staff also blamed the Affordable Care Act, saying it’s “strained our capacity,” and Murray mentioned the hospital has been dealing with more complex patients and referrals from community hospitals.

The cuts in staff will hopefully save the medical system $40 million in its current fiscal year and $100 million in fiscal year 2018, according to Murray.