MidMichigan Health plans to restructure and re-align its work force in the coming months, and the changes could mean laying off as many as 1 percent of the company's nearly 5,000 workers.
MidMichigan Health is the parent company of MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland as well as Medical Centers in Clare, Gladwin and Alma. The company also owns other health care facilities including home health care and nursing homes.
In a news release, the company said the restructuring is needed because of changes in the way health care is provided, the economy and health reform. These factors are affecting health care organizations in Michigan and nationwide, the news release stated.
The health system has a work force of 4,831. Officials will not know the number of employees who could lose their jobs until the restructuring is completed in mid-May. But it is expected to be less than 1 percent of all employees.
Company officials said these changes are happening just as demand for health care services is increasing in some areas and decreasing in others. Growing areas include physician practices, emergency services and critical care. In the past nine months, MidMichigan has added 50 new physicians and what the company calls mid-level providers. New positions include primary-care providers, specialists and a new critical care team.
"MidMichigan's vision is to be an integrated health system, and we have been working toward that vision for more than three years," said Richard M. Reynolds, president of MidMichigan Health. "With changes in the health care environment and declining reimbursement we are challenged to shift our resources and realign our employees to continue to provide excellent clinical quality and excellent patient experiences in a safe environment. Doing that means that we have to change and re-tool how we do things."
Developing new physician practices requires clinical and support staff. As a result, MidMichigan Health plans to take staff members from under-utilized areas and put them in open positions. Some people could lose their jobs, the company said, because they cannot be redeployed into open positions.
Management of some departments throughout the four hospitals will be re-aligned, and some services will be consolidated, the news release said.
"Our business is changing," said Lynn Bruchhof, MidMichigan Health vice president of human resources. "We are fortunate to be able to realign our talent resources, our people, to areas of growth and need throughout MidMichigan Health."
Some employees will retire, while others are volunteering to take part-time positions, and still others are applying for the 120 open positions in MidMichigan Health, she said.