HOUSTON — Texas Children’s Hospital is laying off 5% of its workforce, according to reporting from the Houston Chronicle. 

What You Need To Know

  • The newspaper published an exclusive report Tuesday saying that the hospital is cutting roughly 1,000 jobs because of financial challenges

  • Texas Children’s employs approximately 20,000 people across all 120 Houston locations and campuses across Texas and around the world

  • The Chronicle said that the hospital system reported an income loss of almost $200 million through the second quarter of this fiscal year. Some factors that have contributed to the monetary losses include lower-than-average patient volumes and a delay in the opening of a new Austin campus

  • While the layoffs impact both clinical and nonclinical employees, Aldred said the hospital does not expect it will lead to higher workloads for its remaining employees. She also doesn’t believe it will affect patient care

The newspaper published an exclusive report Tuesday saying that the hospital is cutting roughly 1,000 jobs because of financial challenges. Texas Children’s employs approximately 20,000 people across all 120 Houston locations and campuses across Texas and around the world. 

The Chronicle said that the hospital system reported an income loss of almost $200 million through the second quarter of this fiscal year. Some factors that have contributed to the monetary losses include lower-than-average patient volumes and a delay in the opening of a new Austin campus.

Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources officer Linda Aldred told the Chronicle that the layoffs resulted from “historic financial challenges” within the health care industry. 

“This has been so challenging and so difficult for us to get here. We have been really thoughtful about it,” Aldred said to the Chronicle. “We plan to communicate these changes (Tuesday), and we do not plan to have additional cuts or job eliminations.”

Aldred also told the Chronicle that its executive leadership team will take a pay cut this fiscal year. 

While the layoffs impact both clinical and nonclinical employees, Aldred said the hospital does not expect it will lead to higher workloads for its remaining employees. She also doesn’t believe it will affect patient care. 

“Some areas may have one or two people (laid off), other areas may have more, but they redesigned their work as they went through this assessment,” Aldred told the Chronicle. “It won’t be an overwhelming burden.”

All of this follows Fitch Ratings downgrading Texas Children’s bond rating from AA to AA- after the hospital reported its operating income losses.