Ochsner Health plans to lay off almost 800 employees in Louisiana and Mississippi

Ochsner Health said today that they plan to lay off almost 800 employees throughout Louisiana and Mississippi due to the increase in experienced increased labor costs, a shortage of patient care clinicians, high inflation and the end of pandemic relief funding from the government. The layoffs will affect workers in management, administrative and clerical positions but not doctors, nurses, and other clinical staff members.

Photo byBaton Rouge Business Report

A message was sent to all Oschner staff members today from CEO Pete November informing them of the pending layoffs. "For some time, we have all been working hard to address our financial and workforce challenges. We are not alone in this: healthcare providers across the country have experienced increased labor costs, a shortage of patient care clinicians, high inflation and the end of pandemic relief funding from the government.

I’m grateful to everyone who has contributed to our work to address this challenging environment, which has included reducing discretionary spending, decreasing our reliance on agency workers, renegotiating spending on supply and service contracts and holding on hiring for management positions. We have also led significant efforts to increase clinic visits, improve throughput and develop new innovative care delivery models. Despite progress and our significant efforts to reduce expenses, we need to do more to ensure we can continue to deliver on our mission and meet the needs of the patients and communities we serve. Today, we are taking the difficult step of reducing the size of our workforce by eliminating 770 positions, which represents roughly 2% of our team. Impacted positions are management and primarily non-direct patient care roles. No physicians are impacted by this reduction, and any impacted employees with active clinical credentials will be offered direct patient care roles. As an organization whose Core Values are rooted in putting our patients and people first, this is not a decision our executive leadership team takes lightly or one we ever wanted to make. It is the hardest change we have ever had to make at Ochsner, but one we must to ensure we continue to be a strong organization with the resources to fulfill our purpose and lead the way for clinical excellence and innovation.

This organization is full of people who go above and beyond every day to make a difference to the patients we serve, the communities we love and the colleagues we support. For those talented professionals who will be leaving us today: this is not the experience we hoped you would have at Ochsner. I want to thank you for all you have done and for sharing your talents with us."

You can read the full message here: https://news.ochsner.org/news-releases/message-to-employees-from-ochsner-health-ceo-pete-november

Ochsner Health is Lousiana's largest hospital system and one of the largest private employers with 42 hospitals and more than 200 urgent care and health centers in Louisiana and Mississippi.