Samaritan Health Services reduced its workforce by about 80 positions, the organization confirmed Friday. The layoffs had occurred earlier in the week.
Samaritan, a nonprofit regional health system, operates hospitals in Newport, Lincoln City, Corvallis, Albany and Lebanon along with several regional clinics. According to its website, the organization has more than 6,000 employees. A Samaritan spokeswoman in Lincoln County said the organization would “not share community-specific layoff numbers” for layoffs in Lincoln, Benton or Linn counties.
Samaritan said it was able to manage a small, yet positive, margin through the pandemic and the following few years. But in 2024, a variety of pressures, including rising inflation, cyber incidents, inclement weather, a decline in volume in some clinical areas and unfavorable payer reimbursements, impacted its ability to maintain a favorable margin, the health system reported.
In July, officials said that operational expenses exceeded operational revenues by nearly $23 million.
“To recover and maintain financial stability, several measures are being put in place including expense control, project delays and staffing adjustments,” Samaritan said through a prepared statement. “We have reduced our workforce by about 80 positions, or 1 percent of our employee base, that were primarily not patient-facing. Some other employees have had a small change in hours or have voluntarily separated from the organization.”
Officials said that in addition to those actions, temporary pay cuts have been implemented for senior leaders for the duration of the year.
“The decision to eliminate positions within the organization was not taken lightly, but our current financial position is not sustainable,” Samaritan said in its statement.
- Philomath News
There’s already quite a wait to see certain health care providers or get some procedures done at Samaritan Pacific, prompting some of us to travel to Corvallis to get something done in a timely manner. So I wonder how much worse that will become with these cuts.
Samaritan’s service levels will go from mediocre to poor with this plan. I have been using them for 7 years and each year their service gets worse. Appt times are ridiculous and overall service is pathetic. I have been operated on 3 times for the same hernia condition and still walk around with a softball swelling in my groin.