FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mary Orr, Communications and Media Specialist

(413) 748-7217 or (413) 530-4718

Providence Behavioral Health Hospital Announces Operational

Changes
Holyoke, Mass. (July 13, 2018) – Officials at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital have
announced a plan to restructure certain services and align the size of the workforce to match
current operations at the hospital.

For the past many years, Providence Behavioral Health Hospital has faced a number of
operational challenges: an aging infrastructure, with increasing capital costs to maintain new
environment-of-care regulations; reimbursement levels that are not adequately covering the cost
of care; declining patient volumes in certain services due to changing demand and increased
availability of care in other settings; and workforce shortages shared across the country,
including for psychiatrists and other critical team members.

Following a comprehensive review of local community needs and hospital resources, the
decision has been made to eliminate a number of positions at Providence Behavioral Health
Hospital. This reduction in the workforce will impact both bargaining unit (union) and non-
bargaining unit colleagues, including direct care staff and supervisors and managers. These
changes align the size and structure of the workforce with current services, none of which have
been eliminated. Providence Behavioral Health Hospital continues to provide inpatient
psychiatric care to children, adolescents, adults and older adults, as well as inpatient and
outpatient substance use disorder treatment.

While these changes do include the elimination of some full and part-time positions, there has
been an effort to reduce partial hours or eliminate open or unfilled positions whenever
appropriate. Additionally, representatives of the Human Resources Department will provide
support to impacted colleagues and provide opportunities to apply for comparable positions
throughout our ministry and Trinity Health Of New England, and an outside placement firm will
work with colleagues who prefer to seek outside employment. Until these efforts have been
exhausted, it is not possible to provide an exact number of colleagues who will be impacted by
this reduction in force. However, the expectation is that the majority of impacted colleagues will
find appropriate job placement.

-More-
"We deeply regret that this reduction of positions is necessary. The decision to implement a
restructuring and redesign of the care model and reduce staff at Providence Behavioral Health
Hospital was extremely difficult to make," said Amy Ashford, Director of Marketing and
Communications, Mercy Medical Center and its affiliates. "However, this workforce reduction will
allow us to steward our resources, 'right size' our staff to our current state and allow us to
continue providing outstanding behavioral health services to the local community."

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About Mercy Medical Center

Mercy Medical Center has established itself as one of the leading providers of health care services in Western
Massachusetts. In 2015, Mercy Medical Center became part of Trinity Health Of New England, an integrated health
care delivery system that is a member of Trinity Health, Livonia, Michigan, one of the largest multi-institutional
Catholic health care delivery systems in the nation serving communities in 22 states. Mercy Medical Center is a 182-
bed acute care hospital in Springfield. Other facilities include, Providence Behavioral Health Hospital, located in
Holyoke, licensed for 131 beds; Weldon Rehabilitation Hospital, a comprehensive hospital-based rehabilitation
center on the campus of Mercy Medical Center; Brightside for Families and Children, an outpatient service offering
counseling and family support programs; and two outpatient substance abuse treatment centers. Visit us at
mercycares.com for more information and follow us on Facebook @MercyCaresSpringfieldMa.

1000 Asylum Avenue, 5th Floor • Hartford, CT 06105 • 860-714-1900 • TrinityHealthOfNE.org