CAMARILLO : Hospital Use Down, 8 Workers Laid Off

Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo has laid off eight of its 630 employees, citing a drop in the occupancy rate of medical beds, hospital officials said Tuesday.

“Fewer people are using the hospital so we need fewer people to take care of them,” said Sheryl Rudie, the hospital’s director of planning.

Hospital spokeswoman Carol Keochekian said residents should not feel any effect from the layoffs. “Their health care is not going to be affected,” she said.

Officials said 61% of the hospital’s 180 beds were used in the first three months of 1991, compared with 54% the same months of this year. Occupancy of the beds in the surgery unit is down from 58% last year to 50% this year, officials said.

The layoffs are not related to a proposed merger between Pleasant Valley Hospital and St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, Rudie said.

The eight Pleasant Valley employees were told by their supervisors last Tuesday of the layoffs, which were effective the same day. The workers were given pay in lieu of notice, with payment based on length of employment, Rudie said.

Keochekian said Pleasant Valley laid off a number of employees six or seven years ago for the same reason, she said.

“That pretty much drives how many employees we need to run the hospital,” Keochekian said.