Baylor Scott & White Health, the state’s largest nonprofit hospital system, is eliminating 145 jobs in central Texas as part of its plan to outsource and retrain 1,700 employees.
The company will cut 83 jobs at 3161 Eagles Nest St. in Round Rock and 62 jobs at SHA LLC at 12940 NUS 183 in Austin, according to documents filed with the state.
“To make an even greater investment in first-rate service, Baylor Scott & White is announcing a change in the way it operates certain corporate services for non-patients,” said the company in WARN letters sent to the mayor of Round Rock, Craig Morgan, and Austin Mayor Steve Adler. “Our goal is for each affected employee to be given a comparable job option, inside or outside BSWH, and no one will lose a salary because of this transition.”
A WARN letter, which stands for Worker Readjustment and Retraining Notification Law, is a mandatory federal notification that employers must provide to state governments in the event of major layoffs.
The job cuts will begin no later than May 3 and must be permanent, the letters say.
Baylor Scott & White said it has made arrangements for all eligible employees to receive comparable job offers with a company supplier.
“Almost two-thirds of the employees involved will have the opportunity to work for new service providers, doing work similar to what they do today, but for a new company,” Christy Millweard, Baylor Scott & White told Statesman. “For the other third, our team of recruiters and HR professionals will work individually with each individual to offer multiple opportunities.”
The Baylor Scott & White system employed at least 2,000 people in the Austin area in 2020, according to the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce website.
The company announced a restructuring plan in January, saying it was part of a broader effort to focus on its core health business and related opportunities.
The layoffs occur at a time when the health sector has been recovering from the COVID pandemic for more than a year. Frontline health workers will not be affected by the cuts, the company said.
About two-thirds of the affected workers at Baylor Scott & White will be transferred to partner companies that specialize in information technology, billing and revenue management and other support services, the company said in January.
About 600 to 650 jobs across the company will be eliminated and these employees will be invited to participate in recycling programs, said Baylor Scott & White.
The company said it expects to save $ 600 million in five years and will invest the savings in first-rate health initiatives.
Last spring, Baylor Scott & White said it would eliminate about 3% of its workforce, or about 1,200 workers. The company’s senior executives, about 260 in total, also suffered temporary salary cuts, the company said.
This report contains material from the Dallas Morning News.