Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital terminated additional staff members Tuesday, following management-level layoffs last week, according to officials.
Though he did not confirm the number of new layoffs, hospital spokesman Patrick Moody said additional staff reductions took place Tuesday.
The layoffs come after the hospital eliminated nine management employees throughout the organization, which took effect Friday, according to a recent email to employees from Henry Mayo President and CEO Roger E. Seaver.
The message said that additional terminations would continue, though it was not clear how many more positions and in what departments they would be eliminated.
Reductions come as a result of lower-than-average hospital visits at its Emergency Department and reduced surgical volumes since the coronavirus pandemic began affecting the local community. These low numbers are expected to continue, according to hospital officials.
“As has been widely reported, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant negative financial impact on every hospital in the country, as a result of sharply reduced surgical volumes and substantially lower emergency department visits,” Moody said in a previous statement.
“Henry Mayo has not been immune to these same financial pressures,” Moody’s statement said. “To maintain our financial and operational strength, we had to make the difficult decision to reduce our workforce. While such a decision is painful at any time, it is especially so now, given that all our employees have performed so heroically responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We sincerely thank all our departing employees for their dedicated service and wish them the best in their future endeavors.”
In the letter to employees, Seaver expressed his confidence in the hospital’s recovery from financial challenges and in its patient census.
