Hospital Lays Off 50 in Mission Viejo Patient Downturn

Responding to a drop in hospital use, Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center dismissed 50 of its 1,400 employees this week, hospital administrator Gary Fybel said Wednesday.

Total patient-days spent in the hospital are running about 8% below last year’s levels, and use of the 212-bed hospital’s regional trauma facility has dropped about 20%, he said.

Fybel said he hopes that the hospital is “having an impact on alcohol-related accidents with our community education efforts.” Such drunk-driving accidents account for a large part of the trauma center’s business.

The drop in overall patient days is attributable to several factors, said Fybel, who cited shorter hospital stays for childbirth, gallbladder and other surgeries, plus a relatively low incidence of respiratory viruses this winter.

The recession may also be contributing, he said: “We don’t know how much of it’s caused by people deferring care. This is a phenomenon that has impacted hospitals throughout Southern California.”

The 50 employees laid off came from virtually all of the hospital’s departments, including nursing, administration, engineering and financial services, Fybel said. Workers received severance payments of two weeks’ wages or more, depending on seniority.

Fybel said the hospital tried using other measures to cut costs in reaction to the downturn--such as asking employees to use vacation time and to work fewer hours--but could not put off the dismissals indefinitely.

“This was the least desirable alternative, but it was something we felt we needed to do,” Fybel said.

Despite the slump, the hospital will press on with a $50-million expansion program begun last year that will add 38 beds by mid-1992 and up to 127 beds in the future.

“We see this as a temporary slowdown,” Fybel said. “Certainly the area has tremendous population growth, and the expansion project is designed to accommodate that. We will also be adding some additional programs we don’t currently provide.”