Sad Hutcheson Medical layoffs

The Chattanooga area is most fortunate to have a wide variety of good hospitals and other medical facilities and services available. Unfortunately, those services involve big costs for patients, government and taxpayers, and those realities must be faced.

It is sad, for example, that Hutcheson Medical Center in Fort Oglethorpe is losing so much money that it has had to tell 75 of its 900 employees their jobs have been eliminated.

That's obviously painful to the employees and potentially inconvenient to patients. But hospital authorities had to take steps to reduce costs. They are also considering a possible partnership with Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga.

The job losses are regrettable. These days, unfortunately, nothing related to medical care is simple or cheap.

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