LONG BEACH : 2 Hospitals Trim Nearly 200 Jobs From Staffs

Long Beach Community Hospital and St. Mary Medical Center have been forced to slash their staffs in recent weeks because fewer patients are staying overnight.

St. Mary, a 551-bed hospital on Linden Avenue, is trimming the equivalent of 105 full-time jobs from its 2,000-member work force. It plans to lay off 26 full-time and part-time employees, eliminate 36 vacant jobs and persuade 15 workers to retire early. Many other workers will have their hours reduced.

At 302-bed Long Beach Community, officials last month announced plans to cut 71 full-time and part-time jobs, including 22 layoffs, hospital spokesman Mark Scott said.

Officials at both hospitals said they had to reduce their staffs because of a declining number of overnight stays--a trend spawned by the recession, improving medical technology and the growing influence of health maintenance organizations. Health maintenance organizations stress preventive health care as a way to keep their members out of hospitals.

“That’s something that all hospitals in California are feeling, but I think it’s more marked in Long Beach,” said David Tillman, St. Mary president and chief executive officer.

Tillman said the job cuts and other cost-cutting measures were intended to reduce St. Mary’s $140 million in annual operating expenses by 5%. The layoffs were the first at the hospital, he said.

Scott said he could not recall any previous layoffs at Long Beach Community. “We looked at every other possibility first, but we finally had to bite the bullet,” he said.

No doctors or nurses lost their jobs at either hospital. All the cutbacks were made in the administrative and support staffs.