United Western Medical Eliminates 60 Positions

United Western Medical Centers in Santa Ana said Tuesday that it has notified 60 clerical and management personnel that their jobs have been eliminated in a reorganization of the 2,200-employee health care company.

A spokesman for the nonprofit organization said some of the 60 people affected will be able to transfer into other positions with United Western and its three facilities, all of which are in Orange County. But the exact number was not known Tuesday, he said.

The reorganization is eliminating 36 clerical posts, 17 middle management positions and 6 technical positions, spokesman Alan Feldman said. The highest job title being eliminated is vice president for medical affairs. None of the positions, Feldman said, are involved in patient care.

“This is a real, old-fashioned reduction in force, made after it was determined that it would be more efficient to do things in another way,” Feldman said. “It is part of an effort to maintain what the hospitals have and to position them to get stronger in the future.”

Feldman said United Western, like other hospital operators, is facing continued financial pressure as private and government insurers reduce benefits and payments for hospital services and encourage people to use hospitals as a last resort.

United Western operates three facilities, all in Orange County and all under the name United Western Medical Centers. Its largest is the 310-bed hospital and medical center on Tustin Avenue in Santa Ana, formerly called Santa Ana-Tustin Community Hospital. The chain also owns a 206-bed hospital in Anaheim and a 214-bed skilled nursing facility in Santa Ana.

The reorganization had been under discussion by the board of directors for several months, according to Feldman.

It came exactly 3 weeks after Wayne D. Schroeder, United Western’s president, unexpectedly announced his early retirement from the job he had held for almost 21 years.

Schroeder told hospital directors that he wanted to pursue other business interests. Hospital officials said at the time that there was no friction between Schroeder and United Western directors.

Feldman said Tuesday that Schroeder’s resignation was not related to the decision to eliminate the 60 positions.

The board of directors decided several months ago that changes had to be made to position the company to handle increasingly tighter financial conditions, according to Feldman. It is coincidental, he said, that the final decision about what to do was made just after Schroeder left.

“The board of directors mandated that changes be made, and the current management came in when it was time to make the final evaluation as to just what the changes would be,” Feldman said.