OCEANSIDE — Tri-City Medical Center officials confirmed that recent employee layoffs were due to “right-sizing” the hospital’s lopsided patient-staff ratios and not related to last week’s cybersecurity data breach or its newly-forged partnership with UC San Diego Health.
As Tri-City continues to recover from the ransomware attack on Nov. 9, layoff notices were sent to 100 employees in the days following the cybersecurity incursion, hospital officials confirmed.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that a Nov. 13 letter to hospital staff from Tri-City CEO Dr. Gene Ma mentioned 60-day layoff notices had gone out to an unspecified number of employees.
Tri-City spokesperson Jessica Shrader confirmed with The Coast News that the hospital laid off workers due to a need for the hospital to adjust its staffing levels.
“Staffing levels have to match how many patients you have,” Shrader said. “Those have been declining over time and we haven’t adjusted our staffing model to match that.”
According to hospital officials, staffing levels are currently designed to serve 24% more patients than the current number of patients it sees.
Tri-City also suspended its labor and delivery services earlier this year, reducing its patient numbers even further.
Shrader said the layoffs were not connected to the data breach or the hospital’s recent partnership with UC San Diego Health, which is set to take over hospital operations in March.
“Right-sizing measures would have happened regardless of the partnership with UCSD,” Shrader said, noting that Tri-City made UCSD aware of its need and intentions to downsize staff.
Palomar Health was also rumored to have laid off employees; however, the hospital district told The Coast News in a statement that although some changes would be made, a layoff isn’t one of them.
“Palomar Health normally assesses their structure each year to determine if they have the appropriate resources supporting the efforts they believe to be important for the next year,” the statement reads. “This year is no different and Palomar Health is making some changes in their leadership roles to address changes they have already made in certain service lines and partnerships.
“Palomar Health is not planning to have a layoff,” the statement continues. “In fact, five of the individuals that were impacted have already chosen to fill other roles within the organization. It is important for Palomar Health to adapt and change in the world of healthcare and healthcare delivery.”
