Jefferson Health lays off 400 workers

Philadelphia's Jefferson Health is cutting it's workforce, of over 42,000 people by about 1% -- or more than 400 workers.

On Tuesday morning, in a statement NBC10 received from Joseph G. Cacchione, Jefferson CEO, the health provider claimed this week's cuts come after a review of the organization to "realize efficiency and savings."

"Over the past few months, we have been thoughtfully and comprehensively evaluating our operations to ensure that our services meet the evolving needs of our patients, students, members and communities in this new era of healthcare and higher education," the statement read. "This week, we made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by approximately 1%. This comes after also reviewing the organization for other operational changes that could be made to realize efficiency and savings and also eliminating a number of vacant positions. These reductions were focused largely in corporate and administrative functions."

Cacchione's statement continued, noting that the decision "was not made lightly," and claimed that "there are incredible financial pressures" on health care providers and higher education organizations across the country.

"There are decreased patient volumes at the same time as double-digit increases to costs, and the economic models that support many payer-provider relationships do not yet reflect all the ways the environment is changing," the statement noted.