Northwest Community Healthcare cuts more than 100 jobs, discontinues inpatient psychiatric services
More than 100 employees at Northwest Community Healthcare in Arlington Heights will be laid off due to cuts in psychiatric services and other areas, officials said Thursday.
Endeavor Health, which now runs the Arlington Heights hospital following a series of mergers and acquisitions, announced the job cuts to employees Wednesday and in a legal public notice published Thursday in the Daily Herald.
The layoffs are tied to the upcoming discontinuation of inpatient psychiatric services effective April 11 and are expected to include nurses and others with specialized skills who work at the NCH Behavioral Health Center, 901 W. Kirchoff Road.
The clinic, which is next to the main hospital building, will remain in use for outpatient psychiatric services and the hospital system’s medical group, while the future of the inpatient space is being evaluated, according to an Endeavor spokesman.
“Like many in the health care industry, we are entering 2025 facing significant cost pressures and headwinds that require our organization to adapt and think differently about how we maximize our talent and resources to operate effectively and continue to deliver high-quality, expert care to our communities,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The change is being driven by a sustained decrease in demand for inpatient behavioral health services, the spokesman said, while outpatient, community-based care and telehealth services have increased.
Hospital officials “do not believe this change will negatively impact access to care in the region,” said the spokesman, adding there is “excess capacity” across the Northwest suburbs and the Endeavor Health system. That includes a dedicated psychiatric hospital and three other hospitals with inpatient psychiatric units, according to Endeavor’s published notice.
The hospital isn’t making any changes to outpatient services, including screenings, specialized programming, counseling, support groups and provider clinics, officials said. At the same time, they say they plan to enhance services in the outpatient behavioral health department throughout 2025 by adding providers, creating specialty programs and integrating counselors with primary care physician offices.
Of the approximately 100 employees whose jobs are being cut, Endeavor officials said they are “hopeful that many will join us in other positions across our system.”
Endeavor on Wednesday also gave pink slips to “a small number” of other workers in various other areas. The spokesman didn’t provide an exact number or say which departments, but noted the number is “relatively small given the size of the health system.”
The third-largest health system in the state, Endeavor has 27,600 employees at nine hospitals and more than 300 care sites predominantly in the North, Northwest and West suburbs. There are some 3,100 alone at Northwest Community Hospital, making it Arlington Heights’ largest employer, and representing about 9% of the total village workforce.
Before its 2021 closure, Arlington Park was the biggest employer in town with 4,500 mostly seasonal employees.
Officials at village hall said they were not notified of the upcoming layoffs by the hospital, having learned of it through the news media.
The hospital’s formal request to discontinue the inpatient acute mental illness category of service is pending approval from Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board on March 18.