Napa hospital cutting 100 positions

81 jobs going away, 19 vacant spots eliminated

By NATALIE HOFFMAN
Register Staff Writer

Feeling the pinch of financial challenges, Queen of the Valley Medical Center is eliminating 100 positions — 81 of which are filled.

The cutbacks affect about 5 percent of the organization’s workforce. Nine employees will have their work hours reduced. Positions that have been eliminated or had their hours  cut include 43 full-time positions, 37 part-time employees and 10 part-time relief staff, with one-third of them being offered alternate positions, according to a statement from the Queen.

An additional 19 vacant positions at the Queen will remain unfilled, while laid off employees are going to receive 60 days’ notice and severance pay.

The changes come on the heels of a $12 million budget shortage attributed to “inadequate reimbursement rates, increases in labor, supply and operating costs, expensive seismic and other regulatory mandates and sharp increases in charity care and bad debt,” according to the Queen’s  statement.

 Additional cost-saving measures recently implemented at the Queen include “re-negotiating vendor contracts, implementing budget contingency plans, working decreased hours, by sharing resources with sister hospitals within (the) St. Joseph Health System” and other efforts.

“I am so grateful to our staff,” said Dennis Sisto, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer. “They have been implementing several cost-reduction measures over the past several months to help our medical center remain focused on being a good steward of our resources. ... Unfortunately, the reductions are not enough to shore up the entire $12 million budget gap. We must take additional, difficult steps.”

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