A month after filing for bankruptcy, Hawaii Medical Centers said it will cut about 150 workers in its latest round of staff reductions.

The layoffs reflect an 18 percent reduction in its 830-member work force. The financially troubled HMC, which plans to give affected workers a 60-day notice next week, said it is overstaffed since its patient census at each hospital has plunged to 50 percent while a new operating model is moving patients out of the hospital faster. The layoffs will affect employees across the board, except for doctors, at both its Liliha and Ewa facilities.

“;While this is a very difficult decision, it is necessary,”; said Danelo Canete, HMC's chief executive officer. “;This (model) uses fewer beds while caring for the same number of patients, so we are overstaffed.”;

HMC is reducing both facilities to 50-bed hospitals as part of its strategy to become profitable and emerge from bankruptcy within 12 months, said Salim Hasham, HMC's director of implementation, who was brought on board in April to turn around operations. HMC-East is licensed for 188 beds, while HMC-West can have 102 beds.

The hospitals have been overstaffed by between 20 and 30 percent for a while, but HMC failed to increase referrals and capacity as fast as it expected, the company said.

“;We have a very small window of time to demonstrate that we're going to be successful and viable,”; Hasham said. “; Unfortunately at this time we don't have the luxury at this stage to wait to fill it up.”;

HMC said the reduction will not compromise patient care and that it will retain its four patients-to-one nurse ratio.

But some workers are concerned that patients will be affected by the cuts at both facilities, which historically have provided services for lower-income Medicaid and Medicare patients.

 
• Hawaii Medical Center Laysoff Employees

 

 

 

With many business falling to hard economic times, the Hawaii Medical Center is no different—letting go about 150 employees.

 

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“;How much can they lay off? We're already short as it is,”; said a longtime nurse at HMC-East who asked not to be identified. “;If we're overstaffed how come they need me to come in and work overtime? That's not a way to get out of bankruptcy when you make all the staff overwhelmed. The survivors are the ones that are paying the price.

Since filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, HMC is under great pressure to demonstrate that it can turn around the unprofitable operations and secure new lenders amid a major upheaval in the financial markets.

The hospitals each record an average of eight to nine admissions per day—20 percent to 25 percent lower than its goal. HMC expects to be profitable and emerge from bankruptcy in 12 months, according to Hasham.

HMC—a partnership of CHA Hawaii, an affiliate of Cardiovascular Hospitals of America, and more than 130 local physicians—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Aug. 28 to buy time to reverse money-losing operations inherited when it purchased the former St. Francis Medical Centers for $67.9 million in January 2007. At the time, the company's initial restructuring led to layoffs of nearly 150 employees out of a 1,250-member work force.

Sister Agnelle Ching of St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii was unavailable for comment yesterday.

HMC said last month that it would cut at least 80 employees, or nearly 10 percent of its work force, to bring staffing levels into balance with the number of patients at the hospitals, just two months after outsourcing back-office operations, which resulted in 89 layoffs.

The bankruptcy filings, prompted by the refusal of Siemens Finance to extend an existing agreement on a revolving loan through accounts receivable totaling $5.5 million, were necessary to prevent the closure of its two hospitals, the company said.