Boulder Community Health today announced a 1 percent reduction in its workforce, spelling the departure of about 25 employees, a step President and CEO Dr. Robert Vissers called “a painful outcome that we deeply regret.”

In announcing the layoffs, BCH officials cited the “formidable challenges” facing the nonprofit health care industry, including rising supply costs, declining admissions, falling reimbursements and increased competition.

According to hospital spokesman Richard Sheehan, half of the affected staff worked at the Foothills campus. The other staff were distributed across the organization. The affected staff are said to represent a broad range of positions, both clinical and non-clinical.

Sheehan declined to identify specific roles.

The cutbacks will not require the hospital to close any patient services, according to a hospital news release.

Employees at the hospital targeted in the cutbacks were told this week, with the last of those notifications taking place this afternoon.

A statement attributed to Vissers said in part, “Moody’s Investors Service, which rates the credit worthiness of companies around the world, recently issued a report declaring that not-for-profit hospitals and health systems are facing more severe financial pressure than what we experienced in the toughest years of the Great Recession.”

Becker’s Hospital CFO Report in December reported that Moody’s projected a 2 to 4 percent decline in operating cash flow in the nonprofit hospital and health care sector over the next 12 to 18 months. That prediction comes amid uncertainty surrounding federal health care policy and a 2017 increase in bad debt from unpaid bills, following a three-year decline in bad debt that had been attributed to insurance expansion under the Affordable Care Act.

Julie Lonborg, vice president of media relations for the Colorado Hospital Association, said she could not speak specifically to the BCH layoffs, but noted, “That is typically the hardest decision a hospital CEO will ever make. They don’t take those things lightly, and they have typically exhausted all alternatives before they get to having to make that decision.”

The Boulder hospital’s reductions come just three weeks after Longmont United Hospital announced the layoffs of about 4 percent of its staff.

Layoffs are not the only tool BCH is employing to combat the current economic climate. For example, BCH expects to save $1.7 million this year through renegotiating contracts for various supplies.

In announcing this week’s layoffs, the hospital stressed a number of initiatives intended to expand access to BCH services. Those include an urgent care center that opened in Superior; the addition of two obstetricians and nurse midwives at its Family Birth Center; expanded access to primary care physicians through standardization of appointment times, and new advances in patient care for its cardiology team.

“We are confident that the steps we have taken will enable us to continue providing our community the top quality care and access that they expect from BCH,” Vissers said.

“BCH employees and providers believe in our mission of providing non-profit, independent health care that reflects our community’s values. We will work together to build a strong future for BCH and the patients we serve.”

As part of the hospital system’s reductions, changes are afoot at BCH’s Community Medical Center in Lafayette, which transitioned in April 2017 from an urgent care center to a freestanding emergency department.

Beginning June 1, while on-site, point-of-care testing devices to serve patients’ immediate needs will still be employed there, Sheehan said samples for other routine tests will now be sent by courier to its main lab at the Foothills Hospital campus, which he said was the approach for most freestanding emergency departments across the country.

“This operational change affects seven full- and half-time employees, along with two per diem employees,” Sheehan said. “All the employees have been encouraged to apply for available positions at the Foothills Hospital Lab doing the same job for the same pay.”

Those affected employees are part of the larger number of 25 layoffs announced by BCH, according to Sheehan.

He said BCH offers lab testing services at five locations in Boulder, Broomfield, Louisville and Lafayette.

Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan