UAB Hospital, UAB Highlands and the UAB Health System have reviewed performance with regard to productivity, an important initiative undertaken as part of the Bridge to the Future plan to ensure that UAB is positioned to meet the health care delivery, educational and financial demands it faces  while providing the highest quality of care.

As a result, the three groups will be eliminating a net of 164 positions (245 positions overall, of which 81 will be hired back into positions currently held by non-UAB contract staff), primarily in the area of non-patient care support services; additional changes will include appropriately adjusting hours of work for some, decreasing overtime and eliminating special pay programs. These changes will take effect immediately, said Mike Waldrum, M.D., CEO of UAB Hospital and Highlands.

People whose positions are eliminated will receive severance packages and additional support that includes outplacement services, special consideration for rehire and extended access to The Resource Center (UAB’s employee assistance program provider). Information is available at www.hrm.uab.edu/main/employment/displaced/index.html. 

“At no time has health care been under the pressures that we currently face. We are not unlike other providers in that we all face these challenges to some extent,” Waldrum said. “We are different in that our unique structure, historical strengths, collaborative culture and value system place us in a strong position to meet these unprecedented challenges.

“We will manage through these times by concentrating on our business imperatives of quality care, patient satisfaction and financial performance, and by supporting and caring for our displaced colleagues,” he said.
 
Waldrum said the evaluation of workforce productivity was conducted in an open, collaborative and methodical manner. “The process we used assures us that we will continue to be a leader in providing high quality health care to the citizens of Alabama,” he said. “No changes will adversely affect the quality of care provided at UAB. All potential changes were evaluated against industry benchmarks and all changes are within standard industry benchmarks.”
 
Town hall meetings will be held Tuesday, June 23 to address any questions that might arise. Those meetings are scheduled as follows:

•    7 to 8 a.m.: Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium
•    11 a.m. to noon: Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium
•    10 to 11 p.m.: West Pavilion Conference Center, Room E