St. Joseph Health System, an Orange-based Catholic hospital operator with three local facilities, said Monday it is cutting 159 local jobs.
The job cuts come from St. Joseph Hospital-Orange, Fullerton’s St. Jude Medical Center, Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo as well as St. Joseph’s administrative offices in Orange, spokesman Kevin Andrus said.
The workers are being let go by Sept. 14.
St. Joseph is cutting the positions because of “multiple external economic factors,” Andrus said.
Those include shrinking government reimbursements, fewer insured patients, rising charity care spending and “significant” investment losses from last year’s stock market meltdown.
Last year, Darrin Montalvo, the system’s chief financial officer, said St. Joseph’s investment portfolio had taken a hit.
Hospitals partly rely on income from investments to bankroll operations and expansions.
Affected workers will get severance pay, benefit assistance and continuation, and outplacement assistance, the system said.
The cuts represent about 2% of St. Joseph’s 9,000 total workers.
