TACOMA — Tacoma-based MultiCare on Thursday announced layoffs affecting more than 200 of its workers in the health system.
In a news release, the health system said the cuts would affect 229 employees, or about 1 percent of its 23,000 workforce, “including about two dozen leaders, in an ongoing effort to reduce the health system’s expenses.”
In a statement, the system said that “Through May, MultiCare has lost $121 million. In 2022, the health system recorded a loss of $287 million.”
The system blamed “financial challenges stemming from the global pandemic, including record-high inflation, labor shortages, increased costs of contract labor, as well as a 20-year stagnation in Medicaid reimbursement rates in the state of Washington and other factors contributing to sustained cost increases in the health care industry.”
In a statement, MultiCare CEO Bill Robertson said the cuts were made “after a thoughtful review of our operations and with the charge that any changes made must help ensure we can continue to care for our patients now, as well as be able to serve our communities in the future.”
“The decision to eliminate staff is never an easy one and it is not an effort that we undertake lightly,” he said. “These reductions are unfortunately necessary as MultiCare works to address our financial challenges.”
It noted the layoffs were one portion of its cost-cutting measures, which would also include “streamlining some support department structures and reducing some services.”
Most of the cuts would be in support departments, such as marketing, IT and finance, the system noted, “and will be spread across the Puget Sound, Inland Northwest and Yakima regions. All impacted employees have been notified.”
MultiCare Health System, a not-for-profit health care organization, operates 12 hospitals in the state as well as clinics.
In April, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health announced layoffs of less than 2 percent of its employees, out of its workforce of about 19,000 people among its 10 hospitals, clinics and other medical sites in the area. It also blamed continuing economic pressures similar to MultiCare.
