No matter what the weather forecast, Friday, April 14, will be gloomy for 16 employees of Stevens Hospital as they learn their jobs are being axed due to cost-cutting measures at the home base of Snohomish County Hospital District No. 2.
Friday and Monday, April 17, 15 employees in the transcription department will be informed of the hospital’s decision to eliminate that department and outsource the work of transcribing physicians’ dictation, according to Beth Engel, a spokeswoman for Stevens.
As per their union contract, those employees will be given 90 days notice before their jobs end, Engel continued. May 5 will be the last day of work for most of them.
Also identified early on as jobs whose days are numbered are one painter position and a landscaper job that currently is unfilled, the spokeswoman said.
Those employees learned early what up to 100 workers will find out next week when hospital officials release the list of jobs being eliminated in an attempt to stem the flow of red ink due to unexpectedly low patient volumes the past several months.
Cuts, hospital officials said, will be made in a variety of departments and will concentrate on those least likely to affect actual patient care.
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