St. Joseph Health confirms layoffs as it cuts cost

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Amazon, Google and other businesses have made headlines for cutting costs and downsizing this year. One of Bryan-College Station’s largest employers, St. Joseph Health, will be doing the same.

In the last quarterly report, St. Joseph’s parent company said revenues had decreased in Texas. The report cited lower COVID-19 cases and the fallout from a ransomware attack last October that cost the company about $150 million. On Friday, St. Joseph Health released a statement to KBTX that confirmed the company will lay off employees. The number of how many employees that have been or will be laid off or what other cost-cutting measures may be taken was not mentioned in the statement.

When asked about potential layoffs, St. Joseph said its top priority is high-quality healthcare services.

“Like many healthcare providers across the country, we continue to face inflationary pressures, workforce challenges, and a significant shift in the post-COVID demand for healthcare. As a result, we are taking steps to improve efficiency and effectiveness as well as reduce our cost,” St. Joseph said in the statement.

Despite layoff’s in Bryan-College Station, Dennis Jansen, Director of Texas A&M’s Private Research Center said the demand for Healthcare employees has been on the rise.

“Nationally, healthcare employment has grown faster than total employment so the healthcare sector has been growing robustly, again it slowed down in the last couple of months, but it’s still positive growth that’s true also for the state of Texas and it’s true locally,” Jansen said.

Jansen said a lot of the strong growth in the industry happened last year, but has continued this year at a slower pace as healthcare providers look to restaff.

“Healthcare industry oddly enough was one of the industries that was impacted negatively by the pandemic,” Jansen said. “Lots of people didn’t go to the doctor. You have in your mind this picture of lots and lots of people going to ERs for COVID and that may well have happened at many hospitals, but lots of doctor’s offices, and dental offices had very low customer counts.”

While some businesses may be cutting back nationally, based on national, state, and local data Jansen said he wouldn’t expect healthcare providers to lay off employees.

“It would be unusual to see layoffs of any substantial nature at local employers, but there’s always employer-specific events that can happen that can explain any particular layoffs at a particular company,” Jansen said.

Layoffs and job switching is part of the natural workings of the economy, but the size of the layoffs could affect the economy, Jansen said.

“If there were a very large number of layoffs at a very large employer that could have negative effects on the local economy it would depend on the size of the layoffs and whether those people were transitioning to other employers or leaving the area,” Jansen said.

St. Joseph Health’s full statement to KBTX can be read below.

“Our top priority is making sure we continue to provide the high-quality health care services our communities depend on. Like many healthcare providers across the country, we continue to face inflationary pressures, workforce challenges and a significant shift in the post-COVID demand for healthcare. As a result, we are taking steps to improve efficiency and effectiveness, as well as reduce our costs.” - St. Joseph Health.

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