About 400 positions at Jefferson Health will be eliminated this week as part of the health system’s plan to reduce costs by $300 million, writes Harold Brubaker for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The largest health system in the Philadelphia Region announced on Monday that it will be laying off one percent of its employees this week. Most of the cuts will be in corporate and administrative positions.

Jefferson Health is the parent company for Thomas Jefferson University Hospital; Einstein Healthcare Network, Abington-Jefferson Health, Jefferson Health Northeast, Jefferson Health New Jersey, and Magee Rehabilitation. Jefferson Health employs 42,000 people.

Jefferson CEO Joseph Cacchione said layoffs are focused on eliminating duplication throughout the not-for-profit system that occurred as it grew rapidly through acquisitions before the pandemic.

Cacchione pointed to several financial pressures that Jefferson Health as well as other health systems are facing. Some of these include decreasing patient volumes and rising costs.

“One of the reasons we are at an inflection point now is that we have never rationalized the size of our workforce through four significant mergers,” he said in a memo to employees.

Read more about the layoffs in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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