Overstaffing Cited : Mercy Hospital Planning to Lay Off 100 Employees

Acknowledging an overstaffed work force, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center will lay off more than 100 employees during the next few weeks, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday.

The layoffs will save the 523-bed hospital about $1 million per year, or about 1% of its $100-million annual budget, according to spokesman Norman Greene.

“By any standard--national, county or city--we are overstaffed,” Greene said. “Nobody wants to be told that their position is unnecessary.”

Virtually every department will feel the pinch of the belt-tightening, Greene said. The layoffs will include employees from each job sector of the hospital’s 1,900-member work force--from administrators and nurses to medical technicians and security guards. At least one entire department will be eliminated, Greene added.

Notices informing workers that they will lose their jobs will be mailed this week, Greene said.

Laid-off workers will receive two weeks’ salary, an undisclosed amount of severance pay and a check for accrued vacation time, Greene said.

Forty of the 150 eligible workers accepted early “sweetened” retirement packages, he said.

The layoffs will trim Mercy’s 5.7-employees-per-patient ratio to 4.6, Greene said.

By comparison, the ratio at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla is 4.0, while UC San Diego Medical Center has a ratio of 4.37.

The decision to eliminate the 100 jobs was reached after a review by an outside consultant and after “much soul-searching,” Greene said.

Layoffs within departments were made based on seniority and performance, he said.

The hospital’s three-person photography department--responsible for producing the pictures in the hospital’s brochures and educational materials--will be eliminated.