Tenet Healthcare to slash 1,300 positions to cut $150M in expenses

Tenet Healthcare, which recently went through a management shakeup amid financial losses, plans to eliminate 1,300 positions in order to cut expenses by $150 million.

The Dallas-based healthcare system announced Friday it had begun an “enterprise-wide cost-reduction imitative that would primarily involve job cuts and renegotiation of contracts with suppliers and vendors."

The majority of the savings will be through actions within the company’s hospital operations, including eliminating regional managers and streamlining overhead and centralized support functions. Job cuts will also take place within the company’s ambulatory care and Conifer business segments.

In total, the company intends to eliminate 1,300 positions or about 1% of its workforce, including contractors, by the end of 2018.

The announcement comes in the wake of the sudden departure of longtime CEO Trevor Fetter, who last week stepped down from the top post and left earlier than planned with a severance package worth nearly $23 million. Reuters also reports that the organization has scrapped its sale plans and is continuing to explore ways to reduce its $15 billion debt.

The news about the layoffs also included the company’s preliminary financial results for the third quarter of 2017. Tenet expects a net loss of $366 million in the third quarter.

Ronald A. Rittenmeyer, who was recently appointed CEO while the organization searches for Fetter’s permanent replacement, said in the announcement that the organization is moving quickly to improve the financials and return for shareholders. The cost-reduction plans include structural changes in the way the organization operates to improve agility and speed decision-making, he said.

“We believe these changes will help us drive organic growth, expand margins, and better support our hospitals and other facilities in delivering higher levels of quality and patient satisfaction,” he said.