Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center lays off or reduces hours for employees

POMONA -- Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center this week
informed close to 300 of its employees they will have their work
hours reduced or be laid off in part due to a drop in patients.

There will be about 180 layoffs and another roughly 100 workers will
have their hours cut.

A total of 349 positions at all levels will be affected, some as
early as Monday, said Kathy Roche, hospital spokeswoman. Of the 349
positions, 163 full-time equivalent positions are currently vacant.

Hospital president and chief executive officer Richard Yochum said in
the 32 years he has been with the medical institution, such a drastic
step had never been required.

"We tried to avoid layoffs altogether," he said.

However, "we have no other alternative. Our (patient) volume is
down," Yochum said.

The hospital has had some layoffs in the past. Fewer than five were
laid off in 2004, and in 2000 there were 64 voluntary layoffs, Roche
said.

Like other industries, hospitals are being affected by the downturn
in the economy, Yochum said.

In 2009 the hospital had operating revenue totaling $416 million, a
loss of more than $3.63 million, Roche said.

Revenues for the last six months have continued to be down with the
hospital losing $1.5 million to $2 million per month, she said.

The decline in patient volume was first noticed in the fourth quarter
of last year.

Steps were taken to reduce costs including freezing management
salaries, implementing a partial hiring freeze and negotiating the
best possible prices with vendors.

Management thought California hospitals would receive some state and
federal funding that in Pomona Valley's case could help carry it
through the end of the year, but those dollars did not materialize,
Yochum said.

"By the end of May, the beginning of June, it became clear there were
no other alternatives," Yochum said.

The drop in patients is attributed to a number of factors -- one being
that families are holding off on having children.

"Our birth rate is way down," Yochum said.
In recent years the number of babies delivered at the hospital has
ranged from the high 7,000s to the low 8,000s.

"Now we'll probably barely reach 6,000," he said.

Former patients have lost jobs and are unable to pay bills, while
others have postponed elective surgical procedures.

The number of indigent patients coming to the hospital's emergency
room seeking medical care is increasing as is the number of patients
seeking charity care, Roche said. And patients are seeking medical
care when they are more ill than in the past.

Add to those problems with state and federal funding
reimbursements for Medi-Cal and Medicare patients, she said.

"We'll get the payment but it's delayed or is less than what was
anticipated," Roche said.

As a result of the economic downturn the hospital has also suspended
plans to carry out a multi-phase expansion that was expected to cost
more than $800 million.

Groundbreaking for the initial phase of the project was expected to
take place late this year or early in 2011.

"We have a commitment to our community and patients but there is not
a need for additional beds" at this time, Roche said.

A large part of the hospital's growth was connected to the region's
growth and the boom in housing construction, and "we all know that
has stopped," Yochum said.

The hospital will eliminate some programs and services such as the
transitional care unit. The unit, which will close in about 30 days,
currently prepares some patients before they go home or to a skilled
nursing facility. It provides services such as occupational or
physical therapy services that will make a patient better able to
navigate the next step in his recovery, Roche said.

Those patients will now be accommodated on the hospital's
medical-surgical floors or could go to medical facilities within the
community that can provide such care, Roche said.

Whether additional layoff and reductions in hours will be needed is
hard to say, Yochum said.

"We're expecting this will adjust our expenses more in line with our
volume of patients," he said. "I don't expect we'll have to do more."

Yochum said the hospital will continue to provide the best possible
care to patients, meet required nurse-to-patient ratios and be
available to serve the community's needs.

"Whether now or in the foreseeable future, (patients) will
continue to receive the same level of safe, high quality care," Roche
said. "Patient care will be of the same caliber we have provided for
the past 107 years. Patient care will not be compromised in any way."

Although it's trying to hold down costs, the hospital continues
to invest in technology that allows patients to undergo less invasive
treatment and shortens their hospital stays, and that improves the
quality of care.

The cuts are a concern to the nurses who are members of the Service
Employees International Union local 121 RN.

"We are deeply concerned and the loss of even one nurse is
devastating to us. Our main concern yesterday, today and tomorrow is
patient safety. We are extremely concerned and are fighting for every
job," said Jeannie King, an intensive care nurse at the hospital who
is also vice president of the local, in a statement.

San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland has also felt the effects of
the economic downturn.

"Our volume is also down about 5 percent this year," said Jaynie
Boren, vice president of planning and business development at the
hospital.

In March the hospital implemented a cost restructuring plan and cut
out about $1 million in expenses, Boren said.

The hospital reduced about 100 positions and laid off 17 people.

"But even that is significant to the people affected," Boren said.

The hospital has postponed some projects but continued forward with
others such as the expansion of its emergency room.

All around the state hospitals are feeling the effects of
the low and delayed reimbursements associated with state and
federally funded health programs, said Jan Emerson, vice president of
external affairs at the California Hospital Association.

Those problems are now being compounded due to the poor economy.

"Half of the hospitals in California are currently operating in the
red," she said, adding that last year California hospitals lost $12.2
billion in uncompensated care.

In Southern California 56 percent of hospitals that have emergency
rooms are operating in the red with negative margins of 5 percent,
said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Association
of Southern California.

The pressure on hospitals grows as others have to close their doors
due to financial strain, Emerson said.

That leaves fewer hospital to take care of a population that is not
only growing but also aging, she said.

Hospitals in the last few months have found themselves taking steps
such as cutting programs or laying off employees, Emerson said.