GLENDALE : 49 Hospital Workers Get Layoff Notices

Forty-nine workers at Glendale Adventist Medical Center’s engineering and operations departments have received layoff notices, but some may be rehired through a company contracted by the hospital, officials said.

“We value these employees and they represent a very excellent work force,” said David R. Igler, vice president at the hospital. “The basic reasons (for the layoffs) are to reduce costs and to improve quality in the face of continually declining” numbers of patients per day.

Administrators issued layoff notices to 49 of the hospital’s nearly 2,000 employees Tuesday. They range from boiler-room engineers to plumbers to electricians, Igler said. None of the affected employees could be reached for comment Thursday.

Igler explained that over the past two years, the length of a patient’s stay for treatment has been sharply dropping--although Glendale Adventist Medical Center treats an average of 15,000 patients yearly.

As of July, for example, the hospital has been averaging 249 patients a day--down 10% from the same period last year. Those numbers have put a strain on the medical center’s $115-million spending package for 1993-94.

“We’re barely at a break-even point in operations,” Igler said.

To prevent a deficit, administrators decided to hire an outside firm to take care of the hospital’s engineering and operations departments. The firm, Arroyo Grande-based NMI, has run the hospital’s housekeeping and laundry distribution divisions under a contract since 1988.

The workers who have been laid off can apply for jobs with NMI. Officials at NMI are expected to announce the new hires by noon today, and the employees are scheduled to begin work by Sunday, Igler said. Some can also apply for openings in other hospital departments, he said.

Meanwhile, those who choose to look elsewhere will officially lose their jobs Saturday. Their severance package includes a minimum of two weeks’ pay and two months medical coverage.