Turlock's Emanuel Medical Center lays off 24 employees

Emanuel Medical Center laid off 24 employees effective today as the Turlock hospital continued to deal with decreasing reimbursements and low patient counts, a statement from the 209-bed hospital said.

The hospitalwide announcement regarding the layoffs was sent to staff at 2 p.m. today.

The cuts include 17 full-time and seven part-time positions.

“We are doing our best to help those employees directly affected by the staff reduction,” Emanuel said in a statement to The Bee.

The hospital said eligible employees would receive severance packages and will be allowed to extend health benefits through December.

According to the statement, problems with low patient census, decreasing revenue and increased rates of uncompensated care are presenting challenges to most health care providers and “regrettably, our hospital is not exempt from these issues, despite efforts to control costs, improve productivity and expand services.”

Emanuel officials said in September that the church-owned hospital was in exclusive negotiations with Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., which could result in the sale of the hospital to Tenet.

Among the hospitals owned by for-profit Tenet are Doctors Medical Center of Modesto and Doctors Hospital of Manteca.

An update on those discussions is expected later this month, at the earliest, Emanuel Spokeswoman Pennie Rorex said.

This story was originally published November 1, 2012 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Turlock's Emanuel Medical Center lays off 24 employees."