Scripps Health missed its budget by tens of millions of dollars and now there is one published report that workers could see layoffs in 2018.
CEO Chris Van Gorder told the San Diego Union-Tribune the health care system missed its annual budget by $20 million for the first time in 15 years.
Van Gorder referred to this as a wake-up call, according to the newspaper.
Scripps Health treats more than 600,000 patients annually through the dedication of 3,000 affiliated physicians and more than 15,000 employees among its five acute-care hospital campuses and 28 outpatient centers and clinics.
Here is Van Gorder's full statement to NBC 7:
“Healthcare is changing rapidly with huge growth in ambulatory care and reduced utilization of inpatient hospitals --- and given the elimination of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act, the uninsured will once again be growing nationally. It’s important that healthcare organizations proactively change to address these changes and Scripps is doing so with a major restructuring of our organization to (1) reduce costs for our patients; (2) increase the quality of our services even though they are already strong, and; (3) improve our patient experience in both our hospitals and our many ambulatory sites of care. Our organization remains strong financially as we prepare to spend more than $2.6 billion to improve our facilities and comply with the state seismic safety act – SB 1953 – but changes will be required to maintain that strength and, at the same time, find a way to lower our costs for our patients now and in the future. The changes we are making now will involve our leadership and administrative services. We are still hiring patient care givers.”
