Baptist Health announced Tuesday afternoon that the company will be making company-wide layoffs.
In an emailed statement, the Arkansas-based hospital and healthcare provider said it will cut 170 jobs in an effort to "reduce non salary expenses, gain efficiencies in all aspects of operations through consolidation of services and simplification of processes."
The layoffs will ultimately affect less than 2.5 percent of the company's workforce, it said, adding that the quality of care will not be compromised as a result.
"In a difficult and challenging environment of substantially less government reimbursement, burdensome government regulations, rapidly rising costs of supplies, increasing charity care and bad debt, and the need for technology and medical innovations, we believe these efforts will serve to make Baptist Health more effective," the statement read.
Baptist Health spokesman Mark Lowman declined further comment when reached by phone Tuesday afternoon.
Read more about this story in Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.