St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare plans to lay off 160 employees

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare has announced plans to lay off 160 employees at its hospitals.

BJC spokeswoman June Fowler told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this was the first time in the not-for-profit organization's 20-year history that the St. Louis-based health system has resorted to layoffs. BJC HealthCare operates 13 hospitals in Missouri and Illinois.

Fowler said the cuts include managers, nurses and patient care technicians.

BJC Chief Executive Steven Lipstein attributed the layoffs, which were announced last week, to several factors involving government cuts and reduced rates of hospital use. He said BJC and other health systems across the nation experienced a 2 percent to 3 percent downturn in Medicare revenue in the first quarter of 2013 and a lower operating margin because of government budget cuts.

BJC's hospital patient admissions and emergency room services also have declined, he said.

BJC has tried to boost revenue with more efficient billing and collections, and to lower costs through employee attrition, better management of medical supplies, more efficient use of information technologies and streamlining its administrative expenses, Lipstein said.

"We will always consider layoffs a last resort," he said, adding that any future BJC layoffs will depend largely on actions by state and federal government. "For us, these are our colleagues, our employees, our friends. This is very unusual for us."

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com