I live in a town that has had two hospitals for as long as anyone can remember. One was the county hospital (now is run as a business, has share holders etc.) and the other was the Catholic Hospital.
St. Marys was a mission of an order of nuns for eons, until they turned it over to Catholic Healthcare West and those people just ran the thing into the ground. Bad, bad business decisions, running it from a city on the other side of the Sierras, no local decision-making, tried to undercut the other hospital in town and lost bazillions in contracts (both hospitals are in the health-care insurance business).
So bad was the situation that it looked like the place was about to be shuttered. (A hospital that has been here since the 19th century! Out West that makes it archeologically old!) Even though the other hospital is really large, the closure of St. Mary's would have left our town seriously under-bedded. But at the last minute another company swooped in and bought it!
This past week, the new owners told every employee of St. Marys that they were fired. (Maybe they had a more delicate way to put it, but why quibble). Employees (former-employees) were told to submit new applications. If they hadn't heard back from the hospital in 8 weeks, forget about it. AND of course, they would be hired back at much lower wages.
It has REALLY shaken our whole town. The news just came out Friday and I don't know if there are still patients in house, or if they hired temps for these next 2 months or what. This is going to really produce hard feelings in this town. I don't know if the new guys understand that folks around here hold grudges for a long, long time. What a boon to the other hospital!!!