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Via Christi Announces Details Of 230 Statewide Layoffs

Via Christi Health is eliminating 360 positions in its workforce this month.

The Kansas-based health care provider says the layoffs will affect 230 full and part-time workers statewide. The remainder of the reductions will come from recently vacated positions that will not be filled.

“This is an extremely difficult undertaking as these staff members have made valuable contributions to Via Christi during their careers in our ministry,” said Jeff Korsmo, Via Christi Health’s president and CEO, in a news release Wednesday.

Korsmo went on to say these changes are likely the first of a number of changes that will have to made to put Via Christi back into a position of mission-sustaining financial performance.

Nearly half of the positions being eliminated are in management, administrative or non-clinical support roles.

Of all the cuts, 78 percent are being made in Wichita, 16 percent in Pittsburg and 6 percent in Manhattan.

Via Christi began notifying affected staff members last Friday and expects to notify everyone by Monday, June 10. 

Via Christi is $18 million dollars below its financial budget for this year.

In addition to the layoffs, the company is looking for other ways to reduce costs and senior leadership staff are taking a 4-percent pay cut.

When she's not out making lattes in her mobile coffee bus Sunflower Espresso, Kate Hutchens is a fill-in host for KMUW. She has worked in broadcast journalism at KFDI, Oregon Public Broadcasting, and at KMUW as Morning Edition host, which she did until March 2017.