MANSFIELD — OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospital will restructure 80 positions, replacing the Child Care, Linen and Transcription departments at the hospital with outsourced partnerships, according to hospital president Jean Halpin.

Halpin said the three departments will be partnering to improve patient quality. The decision was made with both a business perspective and a compassion perspective, she noted.

“We put the patient at the center of our decision. Over the last few years, as we really have invested in Richland County at both of our facilities in Mansfield and Shelby, our core business is patient care,” Halpin said. “By being able to take care of patients, we’ve done a lot of investment in programs and physicians and advanced clinical staff.

“Through the process over the last year, we have had to take a step back and say, ‘OK, as we look at the future of health care and the resources we need, Where are the areas we could partner with other organizations to be able to help deliver those services, and where can we look at their critical services?’”

The restructuring plan was shared with OhioHealth staff on Thursday, Nov. 10.

“It does impact 80 individuals in different areas,” Halpin said.

Halpin said she and her staff have worked to find new positions for staff to meet their skills within the hospital.

For linen, OhioHealth will partner with Comtex Central Ohio Medical Textiles. Christina Thompson, communications and media relations manager for the hospital said OhioHealth partially owns Comtex.

“That does impact our linen team up here. Because those positions will no longer be needed here, that allows us to find a better spot and opportunity,” Thompson said. “With the linen individuals, we have several positions open in housekeeping and in our nutrition services department.

“While those (original) positions will no longer be here because we no longer have linen services, we are optimistic we can still find those individuals positions in Richland County.”

Thompson said there will be some in-house job retention in the Linen department for deliveries and collecting linens from nursing units.

OhioHealth will partner with M*Model in replacement of the Transcription department. This will only affect the transcriptionists in the Health Information Systems department. Most OhioHealth hospitals use M*Model to provide these services. Some local physician practices already use M*Model, Thompson said.

OhioHealth is in talks with a local child care provider interested in opening a center inside the hospital, Thompson said. Nothing has been finalized. Current child care staff at OhioHealth will remain in their positions until June 30, 2017.

Halpin said there are close to 100 clinical and support positions available within the hospital. She also said severance packages are available for those who do not want to take a new position.

“We’re really working on a case-by-case basis,” Halpin said.

Richland Source spoke to a number of employees directly affected by the position changes, but all declined to comment.

Thompson said the impacted departments are not employees providing direct, bedside care. The new partnerships will create savings for the hospital, but Halpin said the driving force in the decision was the patients’ perspective of quality, service and cost.

“What we hear nationally, is the cost of health care is going up,” Halpin said. “This is our effort to bring the costs down. Part of this restructuring is really looking at our resources and saying, ‘How do we better invest in taking care of the patient and being able to partner with other organizations.’ ”

Halpin said she realized 80 positions would be an issue for those individuals impacted, as well as the community.

“When we look at how we’re going to work with the individuals, we have landing spots for them,” she said. “Either through our organization or with another organization.”

Because this transition will allow OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby to focus on clinical programs, physician recruitment and opportunities to keep patients that have a higher acuity, Halpin said she thinks this move is best for the institutions.

“We’re the largest employer in Richland County and we realize our success is key for this community,” Halpin said. “By doing this restructure, it’s really focused on investing in this organization so we can not only continue to be a strong hospital, but even stronger.

“I have talked with my colleagues and business leaders in this community and walked them through what we are doing and I am very grateful of the support I have from the leaders of this community.”