Ochsner laying off hundreds of employees in Louisiana, Mississippi

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) - Ochsner is calling it a "difficult day" as they are laying off 770 employees due to "financial and workforce challenges."

Ochsner Health CEO Pete November sent a message to Ochsner employees on Thursday, May 11. In the message, November said that the roles affected are management and non-direct patient care.

"We will do everything we can to deliver the resources and support our team needs and treat everyone leaving our organization with the respect and dignity they deserve," November said in the message to employees.

The company said financial and operational pressures came from three key factors: increased labor costs, a nationwide shortage of patient care clinicians and a weakened economy and high inflation.

Ochsner added that partner hospitals won't be impacted. Those hospitals are Slidell Memorial Hospital, St. Tammany Health System, Terrebonne General Health System and CHRISTUS Lake Charles. No specifics have been given on which hospitals will be affected, including any in the Acadiana area.

Patient care shouldn't be impacted and there are no plans for any more workforce reduction, according to Ochsner.