San Joaquin Board of Supervisors Approves Elimination of 162 Jobs From County General Hospital To Reduce Losses
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to eliminate 162 jobs, including 12 full-time employees who will be laid off April 16, at San Joaquin General Hospital to help offset the more than $1 million the facility loses each month, the Stockton Record reports. In addition, 21 currently vacant full-time positions will be eliminated, and the remaining positions to be eliminated are part-time. Eliminated jobs include management and "rank-and-file" employees, according to the Record. The cuts will decrease from 7.6 to 6.7 the number of employees per inpatient, Kenneth Cohen, interim director of the county's Health Care Services Department, said, adding that the state average for public hospitals is 6.5 to 6.8 employees per inpatient. He said that the eliminated jobs could save $10 million per year. However, hospital employee Debbie Garrison said that the hospital is understaffed and that supervisors should have cut "waste[ful]" services, such as offering a free package of diapers to women who have delivered babies at the hospital (Siders, Stockton Record, 3/31).
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