Livonia-based Trinity Health plans to lay off 557 workers at its Wayne County headquarters as it outsources information technology services across its national network of 91 acute-care hospitals.
The Catholic, nonprofit health system — among the largest in the U.S. — gave noticeto the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity on Sept. 3 that it will eliminate the jobs of internal service desk support staffers as well as programmers, network security analysts, systems administrators and others.
"It does not affect clinical, patient-facing roles," Trinity Health said in an emailed statement to the Detroit Free Press. The move, it said, is being made "for long-term sustainability and growth."
The job cuts are to take effect between Oct.
25 and Nov. 29, according to the notification to the state.
The layoffs come as "the pace and complexity of health care technology are accelerating," the health system said in a statement. "Sustaining that pace is increasingly difficult for any single organization on its own. A partner whose core business is technology support gives us access to specialized expertise and innovation at the speed and scale health care now requires while strengthening service reliability."
A Trinity Health spokesperson declined to answer questions from the Detroit Free Press about which company has been contracted to provide internal IT services for the health system once the layoffs are complete.
In aJune 18 news release, however, the company said: "Any partner we work with must meet our strict standards and the same privacy and security requirements we hold ourselves to, including compliance with all applicable laws.
"Patients will continue to receive the same safe, high-quality care they always have."
In January, Trinity Health announced a restructuring plan that included cutting 10.5% of its staff across 15 states, WOOD TV reported. At the time, the health system said was outsourcing some of the "internal-facing" work done by its revenue cycle department.
Trinity Health declined to answer questions from the Detroit Free Press about the earlier restructuring plan and layoffs.
Chicago-based law firm Strauss Borrelli PLLC said it is investigating whether the health system may have violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act in its plan to cut 557 IT workers in October and November.
The WARN Act includes provisions that require written notice 60 days before the date of a mass layoff or closure. The law firm says those employees could be entitled to severance pay and benefits; it is seeking people interested in joining a possible class action.
Trinity Health did not immediately respond to questions from the Detroit Free Press about the alleged WARN Act concerns.
Trinity Health Michigan operates nine hospitals in the state and has 26,000 employees. It's part of the national Trinity Health system, which has about 133,000 employees across 23 states.
Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Subscribe to the Detroit Free Press.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trinity Health to slash 557 workers at Livonia headquarters
