BREWER, Maine — Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems plans to eliminate more than 40 positions in its information systems department as part of a long-term effort to overhaul operations and avoid a $100 million shortfall in 2019, according to information obtained by the Bangor Daily News.
The Brewer-based health care system, parent to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, expects to eliminate 43 positions in the department, according to a July PowerPoint presentation EMHS prepared for employees. Of those, 15 are vacant positions that would be left unfilled and five represent jobs that would become obsolete, according to the presentation.
Employees in several of the remaining positions targeted for elimination may be reassigned to other jobs within the system, according to EMHS spokeswoman Suzanne Spruce. She noted the job figures haven’t yet been finalized with strategic planning still in progress.
“Forty-three positions may change, but that doesn’t mean 43 people are without a job,” she said.
The targeted positions represent about 12 percent of the workforce in the department, which employs 360 people with a wide range of technology duties, from overseeing electronic medical record and clinical information systems to an employee help desk. The majority of the department’s staff work in the Bangor-Brewer area, though several are employed at member hospitals throughout the state, Spruce said.
Better aligning the department’s functions would slash operating costs by $4.5 million through fiscal year 2015, according to the presentation.
The structural changes are part of a broader effort EMHS announced in November 2013 to “reinvent” how the system provides health care and improve its services and business functions. Without the changes, the system could face a $100 million financial gap by the end of fiscal year 2019, according to EMHS.
The system began re-examining its departments two years ago, work its top executive described as necessary to meet the health care needs of EMHS communities while saving costs.
In March, the system’s flagship hospital EMMC announced it faced a $7 million shortfall as a result of shrinking government reimbursements, fewer patients than expected and a surge in unpaid care.
The parent system already has reworked operations in its human resources and credentialing departments, Spruce said.
Several jobs may be redesigned or relocated.
“We’ve been very transparent with our employees regarding this work and what the future may hold, so there really shouldn’t be any surprises,” she said. “We don’t have things finalized.”
Information systems employees were notified of the potential for staffing changes in the spring, Spruce said. EMHS hopes to reach a definitive plan for the department this fall, she said.
Affected staffers will be referred to the system’s career center to help them find other opportunities within EMHS, she said.