Baylor Scott & White Health contracting out jobs to cut costs

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Baylor Scott &White Health says its contracting out several hundred jobs in an effort to cut costs, and is retraining others within the hospital system.

According to the Dallas Morning News, around 1,700 jobs are affected.

In a statement, Baylor Scott & White Health says about two thirds of those employees will be “transitioning” to contract work from their current positions.

The remaining employees affected will meet with HR in the coming weeks to find new positions that they may be transitioned to, both within the Baylor system and outside of it.

Hospital administration says the move will allow them to increase the focus on patient care in the future, and will allow employees to continue working instead of facing layoffs.

Baylor Scott & White representatives said the employees affected will be from 5 departments including Revenue Cycle, Health Information Management, Information Systems, Finance, and Analytics.

Baylor Scott & White Health released the following statement to KWTX:

Statement from Baylor Scott & White Health

“Core to our mission—both today and in the future—is caring for patients, and as a not-for-profit health system, we are continuously looking for ways to reduce costs and increase access to high-quality, affordable healthcare for Texans.

To make an even greater investment in frontline care, we are sharing a plan to begin contracting a portion of services currently performed by five departments. These back-office functions, while important to our operations, can often be provided at a lower cost if we partner with best-in-class providers.

Our goal is that every employee involved with this transition will be offered a comparable employment option, inside or outside the health system, and no one will miss a paycheck because of this transition.

Nearly two-thirds of the involved employees will transition to work for the new service providers, doing a similar job they do today, but for a new company.

For the other one-third, our team of recruiters and HR professionals will work one-on-one with each individual to offer various opportunities, including:

1. Re-training programs that provide additional skills to employees, qualifying them for much-needed patient-facing roles within Baylor Scott & White.

2. Career support services to help employees secure comparable job offers both inside and outside Baylor Scott & White through career coaching, resume workshops and other support services.

We are confident that these partner relationships will achieve the goal of increasing our focus on patient care. We have more than 2,800 open clinical positions.

If there was ever a time that proved the importance of quality healthcare in a community, it has been the last 11 months as we have battled the pandemic. We have never been more committed to the communities we serve.”

Baylor Scott & White could not confirm how many employees in Waco and Temple would be affected.

Last spring, about 900 employees were let go in the Baylor S&W system, and 300 senior leaders took pay cuts.

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