PeaceHealth to lay off 38 medical transcriptionists in Whatcom region

BELLINGHAM - PeaceHealth will lay off 38 medical transcriptionists in its Whatcom region and shift the work to two U.S. companies - a move that will occur in two waves beginning Feb. 18.
The employees, who provide transcription services for St. Joseph Hospital and PeaceHealth Medical Group in Bellingham, were told Wednesday, Jan. 20.
"When I opened the meeting, I just wanted to thank them," said Dale Zender, PeaceHealth's regional chief financial officer and the vice president of finance.

"It's a really tough time. We have to acknowledge all the years of service that so many of them provided," Zender added.
About half of the local positions will be cut next month as the medical group's transcriptions are outsourced first. Those workers' last day on the job will be Feb. 17.
The services provided for the hospital will be cut starting early next year, PeaceHealth representatives said.
When completed, the cut is expected to save PeaceHealth about $500,000 annually.
PeaceHealth representatives said outsourcing the work to companies that specialize in medical transcription is more efficient, is in line with what the organization has done in its other operations in Oregon, Washington state and Alaska, and is part of a system-wide standardization.
Superior Global Solutions, out of Plano, Texas, and Transcend Services Inc., based in Atlanta, Ga., will handle the new transcription work.
PeaceHealth representatives said they have specified that the new transcription be kept on U.S. soil even though it's more expensive to do so, rather than sending it offshore to foreign work centers.
About 8 percent of the Whatcom region's medical transcription services are being done in Sri Lanka, but PeaceHealth stressed that the new work will remain domestic.
Medical transcriptionists edit and create final reports based on the dictation of doctors and other health care providers. The original dictation is turned into a draft via speech-recognition software, with results that are correct about 90 percent of the time.
Transcriptionists then look at the draft, listen to the dictation and fix anything that's incorrect.
Laid-off workers can choose a severance package, which will provide a minimum of four weeks' pay and three months' benefits, more if they have worked for PeaceHealth longer.
They also could continue working at PeaceHealth for up to six months in what is called the Project Pool, at their current rate of pay and benefits, as they look for a job elsewhere in PeaceHealth.
Affected employees also can apply for work with Superior and Transcend, which could allow them to work locally.
A work fair will be held at the Main Campus for that purpose, though PeaceHealth said the companies don't have a contractual obligation to hire the laid-off employees.
"I think that they would hire as many as they could," said Peter Krautwald, PeaceHealth's regional director of Health Information Management. "They're (affected workers) familiar with a lot of the physicians already."