After a sale to McLaren Health Care is finalized this spring, the hospital will briefly terminate all its employees. McLaren will then take over operations and re-hire the employees the new system needs.
The transition should look seamless to the public, and to patients at Cheboygan Memorial Hospital, according to CMH Board President Jamie McClurg.
"Makes me feel quite good that we will have high quality health care available for people that live in Cheboygan and the surrounding areas," he says of the sale.
But for employees, it remains unclear whether the sale will bring job losses and/or contract changes.
We do know more than 50 people will lose their jobs as a long-term care facility closes. CMH leaders had hoped to keep it open, but bankruptcy negotiations failed to solve funding issues for the facility related to Medicare and Medicaid. That was announced last week before the sale to McLaren was approved by the court.
Few details of the sale have been released, though CMH leaders have said it was necessary in order to keep the hospital open in Cheboygan. In a statement today, CEO Shari Schult said: "I wish we could have gotten more for our employees in this process as far as separation items and benefits." Hospital officials did not respond to requests from IPR to elaborate.
McLaren officials are planning to be in Cheboygan to work out a transition plan this week. The spokesman for McLaren was not immediately available Monday.
McClurg says hopefully there will be more information for employees in the coming week or weeks.
A union, the Michigan Nurses Association, says it hopes to have more information after the sale is finalized. The sale is expected to close April 3rd.
CMH suffered a $7 million dollar operating loss last year, even after years of cuts and restructuring.