MetroHealth to lay off 104, cut 151 open positions

The financially struggling MetroHealth System, Cuyahoga County’s safety-net hospital, will lay off 104 employees and eliminate 151 open positions.

The moves, announced Thursday in a prepared statement, are part of a broader effort MetroHealth detailed in September to cut 450 jobs.

The layoffs and position eliminations come in response to mid-year projections that showed MetroHealth could suffer operating losses of $6.3 million in 2011 and $21.1 million next year.

The hospital attributed its difficult financial situation to increases in unreimbursed care, a decrease in its subsidy from Cuyahoga County and reductions in reimbursement from government programs and private health insurers.

“Poverty has increased in Cuyahoga County over the last decade, particularly in the suburbs and this has a dramatic effect on MetroHealth,” CEO Mark Moran said.

MetroHealth announced plans last week to open a new, $23 million outpatient community health center in suburban Middleburg Heights. To help stem its losses, MetroHealth is seeking to expand its footprint in the suburbs and care for patients who have better-paying insurance.

But even that strategy may not be enough to reverse Metro’s deteriorating finances, because — as Moran noted — Cleveland’s suburbs are finding themselves home to an increasing number of poverty-stricken residents.

Like other publicly funded hospitals across the country, MetroHealth faces an uncertain future amidst financial pressures and uncertainty over the effect of last year’s controversial federal health reform package, which could take a bite out of public hospitals’ patient base.