Medtronic Spine employees were informed on April 4, 2013 that some of them would be losing their jobs in a restructuring to be finalized in May.
Job and Expense Cuts Coming to Medtronic Spine
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Stacey Page Online reported on April 12, 2013 that Eric Epperson, the company’s senior director of communications, confirmed that the company will be reducing its Warsaw workforce leaving approximately 50 full-time workers without jobs. Changes will occur as the company begins its new fiscal year. “The details are not yet available, but yes, approximately 50 employees will be affected, ” said Epperson.
Epperson told OTW that there will be some employee reductions at a number of locations and functions and the focus will not be only on Warsaw. The full restructuring plan has not been finalized, so it’s premature to confirm an exact number of employees who will be affected. The goal is to cut costs while minimizing the impact to employees, such as cutting projects and other cost reduction actions.
5% Cost Reduction
The company put out a statement which said, “The restructuring is intended to set a foundation for the business to return to growth and consistently achieve our financial goals. We are addressing the near-term cost and pricing challenges facing our business, while also responding to the long-term dynamics of the global healthcare environment and changing needs of our stakeholders. The specific details are still being determined and won’t be available until May. However, our goal is to reduce our overall costs by approximately 5%.”
According to Stacey Page, Epperson said the medical device tax is only one small piece that is driving the decision. Other factors include increased pricing pressure, more complex customer device purchasing processes and expanded governmental review times/requirements for product approvals. Epperson confirmed to Stacey Page that some type of severance package and job relocation assistance will be offered to employees. He said the jobs affected will be a combination of production and administration and will be eliminated by the first week of May.
Medtronic Spine has a global workforce of approximately 5, 600 employees.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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