2 Daniel Freeman Hospitals Order 8% Staff Cutbacks

Carondelet Health Care Corp., the parent corporation for Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood and Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital, announced Thursday an across-the-board, 8% staff cutback that will eliminate 170 jobs.

The layoffs, effective immediately, are part of an on-going management reorganization involving the nonprofit hospitals, as well as the corporation’s related for-profit health-care ventures. All job classifications, ranging from administrators to housekeepers are affected, with the exception of doctors and nurses.

“Employees have known for approximately two months that there would be a reorganization,” Carondelet spokeswoman Christie Ciraulo said. “But no one knew until today whether their position would be eliminated or not. . . . No one department has been hit harder than anyone else.”

The layoffs are the latest in a series of cost-cutting moves by the corporation, which before the staff reductions had 2,100 employees. Last May, 76 positions were eliminated.

Last June, Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital dropped out of the Los Angeles County trauma center network, citing large financial losses resulting from the care of indigent patients.

But Ciraulo denied that the latest series of layoffs were a harbinger of further financial woes, stating that the hospitals were not closing beds and were hiring additional nurses.

“The hospitals are in no financial danger,” Ciraulo said. “It is basically a reorganization, and we do not anticipate any financial problems in the future.”

In recent months, another West Los Angeles hospital has also eliminated large numbers of positions. Last fall, Brotman Medical Center in Culver City cut back 165 jobs to reduce its staff to 1,300 employees.

Carondelet Health Care is owned by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, a St. Louis-based group that operates 13 hospitals across the nation.

Subsidiaries of Carondelet Health Care include the 203-bed Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital, the 403-bed Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital and Freeman Health Ventures, a rehabilitation management company involved in joint business ventures with physicians, such as the purchase of medical equipment and office buildings.