Prisma Health announces layoffs for 327 positions.

Prisma Health officials today announced layoffs that will affect 327 employees throughout the system. The organization has a workforce of about 32,000 and had already eliminated 200 positions since Oct. 1 through "attrition, vacancies and consolidation" to lower the total number of positions by 527, according to a news release.

"The 327 team members will be notified beginning today that their positions are being eliminated," the news release said. "Areas affected span the organization, including administrative, corporate and clinical areas across all campuses. Prisma Health is providing the affected team members with severance pay and outplacement services."

Staff who lose their jobs will be able to apply for other open positions at Prisma Health, the news release said.

Prisma Health was formed a little more than two years ago by combining Greenville Health System in the Upstate with Palmetto Health in the Midlands. Until a year ago, the combined health system was overseen by a pair co-CEOs, but those two jobs were phased out when the board chose a new CEO and established headquarters in Greenville. From the beginning, the new organization's messaging talked about efficiencies, streamlining and economies of scale as central advantages.

"The health-care environment in which we operate is becoming increasingly challenging for a variety of reasons, including lower reimbursements and increasing numbers of patients who are underinsured or uninsured," Mark O'Halla, president and CEO, said in the release.

"When we formed Prisma Health 26 months ago, we began integrating and consolidating functions to gain the benefits of scale and to remove costs from the organization," he said in the release. "We have already eliminated duplicative executive management positions, restructured leadership, and gained significant cost savings in supplies, technology and other areas. We are taking steps to ensure that everything we are doing both clinical and non-clinical is delivering quality and value. As part of this ongoing work, we have identified a number of additional expense-reduction strategies, many of which impact our workforce."

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