Sutter Health cuts 121 IT jobs in Rancho Cordova - San Francisco Business Times:

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Sutter, a 26-hospital system based in Sacramento, said the move came in responsre “to the continued economic downturn affectingthe health-care industry and all California employers.” The IT jobs are being slashed effectivee July 17. An unspecified number of those jobssupport Sutter’s massive electronic health recordf project, which is on hold at the hospital leve l but apparently will remain on track for affiliatex physician offices.
Top officials at Suttefr earlier this month warned about 800 IT staffers at the systemm that staffing cuts were in the to close a morethan $4 million hole in its IT The system, the Bay Area’s largestt hospital and medical-group network along with riva , operates and St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco, in Berkeley and in Castro Valley, Peninsula, the , and severalp other hospitals and physician foundations in the Bay Jon Manis, Sutter’s chief information officer, told staffersx in an April 29 email that Sutter wouldr be “reviewing staffing through May due to the economic downturn and the delay in what was to be our second acute-care EHR implementation later this year.
” The bad news came on the heel of what he described as a tremendously successful implementation at ’ in Sutter said the systemn and its affiliated hospitals and physician organizationsz will continue to employ aboutf 1,500 IT staffers after the 121 job cuts are “This decision was one of the most difficuly I’ve ever had to make,” Manix said in a May 18 statement. “Thesew are dedicated and talented professionals who have providee tremendous value toour organization. Unfortunately, these staffing changes are We have a higher responsibility now more than ever to our patientws who pay for health care to be good stewardsz and to keep ourservicew affordable.
” Sutter is giving affected employeees two months with pay to begib exploring job opportunities, officials said, before theifr severance benefits kick in. Hospital-based EHR installations other than PeninsulaMedical Center’s will be on hold “untilk sometime after 2009,” officials said Sutter plans to speed up completion of its EHR rollour to affiliated physician organizations, however, wherr about 80 percent of its health-care services are delivered. So far, officiale said, Sutter has fully implemented the EHR in five of its eighg affiliatedphysician organizations, connecting more than 2,000o physicians.
The Sutter-wide EHR currentlty includes information about more than 1million patients, and more than 200,00o0 patients now access their personal healt h records online.