Fremont-Rideout to cut 185 jobs in consolidation

Fremont-Rideout Health Group will lay off 185 non-nursing employees and move most services out of Fremont Medical Center by May 1, with officials saying a combination of lower patient volume and severe downturns in reimbursements for care are to blame.

"It's extremely difficult," said Theresa Hamilton, Fremont-Rideout's chief executive officer. "It's not what you want to do, it's more what you have to do."

The 185 employees are included among those who are not registered nurses, meaning they cover every department from those working in the laboratory and management to housekeeping and records.

Rideout Memorial Hospital in Marysville will become home for most of Fremont-Rideout's health services, with only women's health and imaging remaining at Fremont in Yuba City. The move will mean about 90 nursing positions will be eliminated at Fremont; under union rules, Hamilton said, those affected at Fremont will have to formally re-apply for 115 nursing jobs at Rideout.

Feather River Surgery Center will continue to operate in Yuba City for outpatient surgeries.

Hospital officials began informing employees of the layoffs Monday and will continue doing so today, she said. Laid-off workers will be eligible for up to 12 weeks of severance pay depending on the length of their employment, all unpaid paid-time off and two months of continued employee benefits, such as health care.

Fremont-Rideout has about 2,100 total employees, with 1,600 who aren't registered nurses.

Patients at either hospital shouldn't notice any differences after the layoffs, Hamilton said. And new mothers at Fremont will actually benefit because they'll have private rooms, rather than shared rooms used now.

Hospital procedures will also be reconfigured to have one supervisor tracking a patient from the time they come to a hospital to using after-care services such as skilled nursing.

"I think once we've got all the restructuring in place, it's going to be a huge improvement," said Carol Ramirez, Fremont-Rideout's vice president of foundation, community relations and marketing.

But Heather Avalos, a registered nurse in Rideout's intensive care unit and chief union representative for Fremont-Rideout nurses, said the layoffs will affect patients.

"All of our health care team is important," Avalos said. "The nurses will now be spending their time with some of these duties performed by people who will be laid off, which'll cut down on the nursing time spent with patients."

Nurses finalized a new agreement with the hospital last year following more than two years of contentious negotiations.

Hamilton said two recent trends forced the layoff decision, which hospital directors began discussing about six months ago.

One was not enough patients to keep both hospitals fully staffed, she said.

The other, more attributable to the recession, is the dramatic rise in patients who come in with no health insurance, or who have insurance but can't afford the co-pays or deductibles, she said.

Because it's the only health provider in the area to provide acute care, she said, Fremont-Rideout has to take all patients in need regardless of their ability to pay.

"We're getting a lot less in return for the services we' re providing," she said. "We thought there would be a volume shift, but not the dramatic downward spiral in reimbursements."

Right now, she said, Fremont-Rideout, a not-for-profit health care provider unaffiliated with other large providers such as Sutter or Kaiser Permanente, is losing about $1 million a month. Last year, the health group provided more than $30 million in care with no compensation, according to hospital officials.

Fremont-Rideout has also been affected by the opening of Sutter Surgical Hospital-North Valley last year, Hamilton said. Sutter North, as it's known, only does elective surgery procedures and doesn't have to provide acute care, she said.

The downturn has also affected Fremont-Rideout's plans for a new tower in Marysville, where crews are now working on demolishing buildings at the site on Third Street.

Hamilton said the health group's finances need to be in better shape before directors can borrow money to build the tower, partly necessitating the layoffs. She added the layoffs would be necessary without the new tower being built, and Fremont-Rideout expects to hire employees to staff the tower when it's built.

Under current projections, Hamilton said, she didn't think the health group would be able to borrow money necessary for the tower's construction — about $140 million — until April of next year at the soonest.

The hospital is working with One Stop offices in Sutter County to provide employees with counseling and help.

Rinky Basi, a program coordinator for workforce investment with Sutter County's One Stop office, said how quickly those laid off find work again will depend on each person.

"Some might be interested in retraining, some might be just interested in another job," she said.

Jobs in health care are sometimes easier to come by than in other professions, she added.

"If there's not a need today for health care workers, there will be a need," she said.

Though doing so might not have meant avoiding the layoffs, Hamilton said, she lamented the failure so far of the federal government to pass any kind of health care reform.

"Nothing has happened, and that's the worst possible outcome for hospitals," she said. "Something would've been better than nothing."

Fremont-Rideout laid off 40 non-nurse employees last fall.

Going forward, Avalos said, hospital directors would be better served to take examples from nearby hospitals in Oroville, Grass Valley and Chico where large layoffs haven't been necessary.

"Maybe the lesson needs to be taken from some of those facilities in how they're run, and in how they deal with their employee groups," she said.

By the Numbers

Some numbers from Fremont-Rideout Health Group, which announced layoffs Monday effective May 1.

Number of non-nursing employees to be laid off: 185

Total non-nursing employees: 1,600

Total employees: 2,100

Amount lost each month: $1 million

Unreimbursed care Fremont-Rideout gave last year: More than $30 million

2009 in-patients: 11,000

2009 out-patients: 160,000

Private rooms for new moms after consolidation: 18

2009 births: 2,200

Source: Fremont-Rideout Health Group

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com.