San Joaquin General Hospital To Eliminate 150 Jobs
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a proposal to eliminate 150 jobs across all departments at San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp to reduce the facility's $15 million budget deficit, the Stockton Record reports. Hospital managers will decide which jobs to eliminate and will request the board's approval of the cuts at a meeting on March 30. According to interim Health Care Services Director Kenneth Cohen, few nurses and physicians will be laid off, and the cuts will affect more significantly other employees, such as marketing and community relations staff. By eliminating the jobs, the hospital staffing numbers will be brought in line with those at other facilities, Cohen said. Currently, the hospital has 7.6 full-time equivalent employees per occupied bed, or about one employee per bed more than the state average and about two employees per bed more than the national average. The cuts will save the county between $6 million and $10 million a year. Cohen said the facility could save between $1.5 million and $3 million more a year by ensuring that free care is only provided to eligible patients and by making other changes to revenue, billing and collection procedures.
In related news, the board on Tuesday delayed until April 6 a decision on a proposal to cut 41 jobs from the county's Mental Health Services Department and to eliminate the department's Positive Resolutions Intensive Day Experience program and Older Adult Day Treatment program. That proposal would save the county an estimated $3 million annually (Siders, Stockton Record, 3/10).
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