Trinity Health Announces More Cutbacks, Layoffs

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Trinity Health plans to close its Trinity Health at Home home health-care and hospice agency in West Springfield and lay off 60 workers, effective Sept. 5.

MassLive reported that patients who can complete their 60-day plan of care may remain on service until they are discharged, while those needing services beyond 60 days will be transferred to another agency, according to Mark McPherson, president and CEO of Trinity Health At Home, who noted that “health systems are experiencing broad shifts in patient volumes, staffing challenges, including high-cost agency contracts, and increasing supply and pharmacy costs.”

Trinity Health’s recent cutbacks in Western Mass. include the layoffs in May of translators, 12 unionized nurses, and other staffers at Mercy Medical Center; the layoffs of about 150 employees as part of the sale of the former Providence Behavioral Health Hospital in Holyoke; and the elimination of about two dozen positions last year across Trinity’s medical practices in Springfield, Agawam, and Chicopee.