Novant Health is laying off 171 workers in the Carolinas, more than half of whom are in the Charlotte area.
The healthcare company’s layoffs affect 90 employees at 6237 Carolina Commons Drive in Indian Land, S.C., just south of Charlotte, and 81 employees at 101 N. Cherry St. in Winston-Salem, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notices filed this week in every state. The layoffs will take effect on August 25.
Jobs affected include IT software engineers and developers, analysts and data.
“Any affected employee will receive 60 days written notice of the date of their termination,” Novant Health human resources officer Alan Flynn said in the notice to the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
Novant is the second largest healthcare provider in the Charlotte region, after Atrium Health.
The layoffs are a continuation of Novant’s shift to a new IT model announced last year, in which the healthcare giant outsources some services to outside firms, Novant Health said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer on Thursday.
Fewer than 300 employees, or less than 0.8% of the health system’s nearly 40,000 positions, are affected by the change, Novant told the Observer.
Some employees may apply for positions with Novant’s external companies or for other positions within Novant.
Recent layoffs at Novant
The latest round of layoffs is Novant’s second-largest in nine years.
In October, Novant Health cut 160 jobs across its network, citing a “challenging health care environment” and an organizational redesign “to prioritize direct patient care, operate more efficiently and reimagine how we serve our patients,” The Charlotte Observer reported. The job cuts included management and administrative positions.
According to the Observer at the time, it was the largest round of layoffs at Novant since 2015, when about 400 people across the company lost their jobs as part of a reorganization.
Also in March 2023, Novant scaled back a number of departments, cutting 50 jobs, including executives.
More about Novant
Just last week, Novant Health ended a $320 million plan to buy two hospital systems in Lake Norman amid opposition from the Federal Trade Commission.
In January, the FTC filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, arguing that the deal would harm consumers by eliminating competitors and raising insurance premiums.
Novant Health is a nonprofit organization that operates 16 medical centers and 800 outpatient clinics and physician practices in the Carolinas.
