Samaritan Health Services cut about 1% of its workforce last week as part of a broader cost-reducing strategy.
Corvallis, Oregon-based Samaritan laid off 80 employees in response to inflation, cyber incidents, inclement weather, volume reduction and declining reimbursement rates, a spokesperson said Monday. Most of the layoffs were not patient-facing positions, the spokesperson said.
Related: Oregon Health and Science University to cut at least 500 workers
In addition to the layoffs, Samaritan has cut expenses, delayed capital projects and reduced employee hours, the spokesperson said. It has also reduced executive pay through the end of the year.
“The decision to eliminate positions within the organization was not taken lightly, but our current financial position is not sustainable,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson did not respond to questions about how much executive pay had been cut. Samaritan had not submitted a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing as of Monday.
The five-hospital system, with roughly 6,000 employees and $1.7 billion in annual revenue, recorded operating losses in 2023 and through the first six months of its 2024 fiscal year.
Samaritan’s operating loss nearly quadrupled to $11.7 million in the second quarter of 2024 from the first quarter, according to its unaudited second-quarter financial statement. In 2023, Samaritan reported an operating loss of $5 million, compared with operating income of $22 million in 2022, its audited annual financial statement shows.
Samaritan is the latest Oregon health system to implement layoffs amid financial pressure. In June, Oregon Health and Science University announced plans to lay off more than 500 employees as the 12-hospital system grappled with higher labor and supply costs.
