St. Joseph’s Health offering voluntary buyouts to about 300 employees

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — St. Joseph’s Health is offering about 300 eligible employees voluntary buyouts in an effort to reduce its staff.

Affected employees have until Monday at 5 p.m. to decide if they want to take offer.

Employees with 10 years of service who are at least 55 years of age, and some select job functions are eligible to participate.

Since the program is voluntary, St. Joseph’s doesn’t have a set target for the number of employees it expects to take the offer, according to Leslie Luke, CEO of St. Joseph’s Health.

“Offering eligible colleagues the choice to voluntarily separate from the organization allows St. Joseph’s Health to adjust its operations to fit the future model of health care while benefiting those who are at the point in their careers, or life situation, where voluntary separation makes sense,” Luke said in a statement St. Joseph’s Health provided BJNN.

St. Joseph’s, which has an employee count of nearly 4,900, has no plans for layoffs at this time, he added.

St. Joseph’s Health continues its “transformation” from a pay-for-service model to one focused on population health, efficiency and outcomes, according to Luke.

Health-care systems will be paid to “keep communities healthy, emphasize preventative medicine, and minimize episodic and acute care. This requires significantly transforming how we provide those services,” Luke adds.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

Photo by Eric Reinhardt / BJNN file photo