The move is part of a broader effort to position the hospital system for the health-care overhaul, CEO Sherrie Sitarik said.
The elimination of jobs will occur in two phases and represents a 2 percent to 3 percent reduction in the system’s 16,000-person work force, said Orlando Health spokeswoman Kena Lewis. The cuts affect all departments and all eight of the system’s hospitals, including Orlando Regional Medical Center and Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, two of the system’s better-known facilities.
Although no staff nursing positions have been eliminated, the hospital has cut nursing management positions. Those workers may apply for lower-level nursing jobs.
The first wave of employees affected received their notices Friday, Lewis said. The next wave of downsizing will occur after the first of the year.
The non-profit health network also will reduce staffing through attrition, she said.
Another part of the system’s five-point cost restructuring includes eliminating “admirable but not sustainable” programs, Lewis said. The hospital also will work to standardize certain health-care procedures.
The hospital is cutting supply expenses by consolidating pharmaceutical purchases through one wholesaler and by renegotiating contracts for cardiac pacemakers and implantable defibrillators. Those two measures combined will result in an annual savings of $825,000, Lewis said.
The hospital will also delay capital spending, she said.
