Erlanger lays off more staff

    Peachtree – Erlanger Health System made more staff cuts Friday, laying off 93 employees across its system, including staff at Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital.
    Erlanger public relations and marketing representatives would not provide how many local employees were affected. In a statement provided to the Cherokee Scout, Erlanger said the primary goal of the layoffs was “to reduce administrative cost without negatively impacting patient care.” Affected positions were non-clinical.
    The system has been suffering financially due to the coronavirus pandemic. Elective surgeries and imaging services were put on hold temporarily, eliminating a key source of revenue, Erlanger reported in March.
    Former Erlanger Western Carolina chief executive officer Mark Kimball said days before he was laid off that people were avoiding hospitals. Kimball was one of 11 non-clinical employees laid off on June 12.
    According to the statement, employees laid off Friday were provided continuation of health benefits and up to 12 weeks of severance pay. On March 30, Erlanger announced a cost-cutting plan that included furloughing administrative employees, staffing changes, reducing overtime, suspending vacation accruals, suspending 403c contributions and reductions in leadership pay.
    One Erlanger Health System nurse in Chattanooga, Tenn., Jeff Holland, is working to form a nurses union in an effort to restore benefits, provide due process for employees, reinstate nurses and technicians who were fired this year, and decrease patient-to-nurse ratios. He was unsure if nurses at the Peachtree hospital would be allowed to join but was willing to welcome them.
    Erlanger Health System had more than 7,000 employees, according to a release issued in March. Erlanger purchased the former Murphy Medical Center, a 25-bed critical access facility, in April 2018.