The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation started handing out pink slips on Monday.
YKHC officials announced the layoffs in May.
Officials said the reduction was necessary due to an $11.7 million budget shortfall. They say the shortfall is due to several factors: sequester cuts to Indian Health Service funding, not meeting revenue collection goals and hefty investments in a new elders home and a new medical records system.
It’s the second round of cuts in less than a year. Last fall around 50 positions were cut.
110 employees will be let go across departments and 50 more vacant positions will not be filled. Officials say village clinics will be impacted, but no doctors will be cut.
YKHC consists of a regional hospital in Bethel, nine regional facilities and 47 village clinics. The corporation employs around 1,500 people and has an annual payroll of $70 million.
Officials say the layoffs will continue this week and they’ll release more information Friday.
Daysha Eaton is a contributor with the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Daysha Eaton holds a B.A. from Evergreen State College, and a M.A. from the University of Southern California. Daysha got her start in radio at Seattle public radio stations, KPLU and KUOW. Before coming to KBBI, she was the News Director at KYUK in Bethel. She has also worked as the Southcentral Reporter for KSKA in Anchorage.
Daysha's work has appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", PRI's "The World" and "National Native News". She's happy to take assignments, and to get news tips, which are best sent via email.
Daysha became a journalist because she believes in the power of storytelling. Stories connect us and they help us make sense of our world. They shed light on injustice and they comfort us in troubled times. She got into public broadcasting because it seems to fulfill the intention of the 4th Estate and to most effectively apply the freedom of the press granted to us through the Constitution. She feels that public radio has a special way of moving people emotionally through sound, taking them to remote places, introducing them to people they would not otherwise meet and compelling them to think about issues they might ordinarily overlook.
