Announcing Changes at Swedish

Over the past several months, I shared on this blog that Swedish is navigating a dynamic health care environment, requiring us to continuously adapt so we can provide the best care possible for our patients and communities.

These efforts focus around our transition to a more integrated system of care, providing our patients the high-quality care they need, when and where they need it, and at an affordable cost. This year, we rolled out a five-year strategic plan that maps our goals to three key areas: strengthening our core, being our communities’ health partner, and transforming our future.

Today, my leadership team and I are taking an important step in this process. We are announcing changes that will enable Swedish to focus more resources toward programs and services that are critical to meet the changing needs and expectations of our patients and communities.

We identified areas where we can be more efficient and cost-effective without impact to quality of care. We will strategically invest in outpatient systems of care and other services our patients require, while enhancing our partnerships with other providers in the community. We also focused on opportunities to create more efficiency within our organization such as through staffing improvements and reducing select management positions. This allows us to reallocate resources and invest in areas that will provide greater value to our patients and move us further toward a care model that meets our patients’ future needs. This evolution is necessary for Swedish to continue to provide our patients with high-quality, cost-effective care for years to come.

To enable this transition, we will make difficult decisions that impact some of our caregivers.

My leadership team and I will spend the next several days connecting directly with caregivers. I know the changes will be hard for many people who work at Swedish, as well as their families. It is our priority and commitment to work with each person impacted by these changes and make sure they have the support they need. When possible, this will include working with these caregivers to apply for open positions elsewhere within the organization. Our hope is to reallocate as many of the impacted caregivers as possible.

I am deeply grateful to all our caregivers as we work through this process.

For more than 100 years, Swedish has served as our communities’ health care partner. As a not-for-profit organization, we are committed to care for everyone who walks through our doors with dignity, compassion and a focus on safety and quality. We want to ensure Swedish is positioned to provide high-quality care for another 100 years.

More information about these changes at Swedish is available here on our website.