Lifespan, the state’s largest employer and health care provider, laid off a fifth of its executive employees, the company’s leadership announced Friday.
The “restructure” hoped to “reduce executive overhead and streamline operations” via a “one-system, one-team approach,” said CEO and President John Fernandez in a statement obtained by The Herald.
These layoffs reduced executive positions by 20% and should save the company $6 million in the upcoming fiscal year, Fernandez added.
Streamlining executive positions and cutting costs “from the top” will allow the health system to “allocate more resources directly to patient care and support areas,” Fernandez said.
The University announced expanded affiliation agreements with Lifespan in June, including the health system’s name change to Brown University Health. The agreements also outlined Brown’s plan to make $150 million in total contributions to Lifespan over the next seven years
Lifespan operates Rhode Island Hospital — the Warren Alpert Medical School’s primary teaching hospital — as well as Hasbro Children’s Hospital, the Miriam Hospital and Bradley Hospital. The health network also runs Newport Hospital, Gateway Healthcare, Lifespan Physician Group and Coastal Medical.
In the 2023 fiscal year, the health network employed over 17,000 workers, hosted almost 1,200 beds and conducted close to 38,000 inpatient and outpatient surgeries, according to Lifespan’s 2023 annual report.
In August, Lifespan announced its acquisition of Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, Mass. and Morton Hospital in Taunton, Mass, for a total purchase price of $175 million. Both hospitals were owned by Dallas-based Steward Health Care System.
A Lifespan spokesperson said the restructuring was “unrelated to the Steward Hospital acquisitions, or the Brown University Affiliation agreement,” in an email to The Herald. They declined to share the amount of executives impacted by the layoffs and their specific positions.
Tom Li is a Metro editor covering the health and environment and development and infrastructure beats. He is from Pleasanton, California, and is concentrating in Economics and International and Public Affairs. He is an avid RIPTA passenger and enjoys taking (and criticizing) personality tests in his free time.
