St. Luke’s Hospital Cuts 24 Staff Positions

Bowing to pressure in the health care industry, St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute has cut about 5 percent of its work force.

The center, at 711 S. Cowley St., announced Friday that it has eliminated 24 of about 470 staff positions.

“This is not easy,” said Debbie Hanks, administrator at St. Luke’s.

“It’s very difficult because we have an incredible staff over here.”

Along with other hospitals, St. Luke’s is facing pressures such as declining reimbursement from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance, while costs increase, Hanks said. Rehabilitation and health care services also are shifting from inpatient to outpatient services. Patient stays are getting shorter, Hanks said.

St. Luke’s has tried to adjust to the changing environment by not replacing staffers who leave. That wasn’t enough, Hanks said.

The average length of stay has dropped from 22 days per patient in 1994 to about 16.5 days now.

The center made $170,000 last year, but that was 3 percent less than planned for in the budget. The center lost about $73,000 in the first quarter of 1997.

St. Luke’s also gave about $9 million in uncompensated care last year, through charity cases and bad debts.

“It looks like we are only concerned about the bottom line, but that’s not true,” said Pam Pyrc, spokeswoman for St. Luke’s. “We want to make sure St. Luke’s stays in this community and provides the same level of high-quality care that it has.”

The employee cuts go across the institute, from food service to nursing to case management. In making the layoffs, managers tried to balance employees’ length of service, job knowledge and job performance.

The center, owned by Inland Northwest Health Services, a collaboration of Spokane’s four hospitals, plans to try and help those workers find new jobs.

St. Luke’s also plans to look into other business opportunities.

“Our hope is we can create enough business to re-employ those affected individuals,” Hanks said.

, DataTimes