Citing difficult economic times, Hawaii Medical Center announced yesterday that it will lay off at least 80 employees at its medical facilities in Liliha and 'Ewa.

The workforce reductions represent about 9 percent of HMC's staff of 890 employees and will include clinical and nonclinical staff, the hospital said. Affected employees were being told of the layoffs yesterday, and the exact number was not available.

Danelo Canete, HMC chief executive officer, said the cuts were made to "bring staffing levels into balance with the number of patients at its hospitals."

He said staff levels would be increased once patient numbers improve.

"We have been very successful in improving our revenue management and reducing the average length of stay in our hospitals," Canete said in a statement. "However, we are not yet admitting a sufficient number of patients to justify the current size of our staff, so we must take this action."

HMC hired turnaround experts Focus Management Group of Tampa, Fla., to evaluate its finances and make recommendations. Canete said the decision to accept Focus Management Group's suggestion to reduce HMC staffing was difficult, but necessary.

"Our turnaround experts recommended this action in order to help us survive in a difficult economic time for the healthcare industry," Canete said. "While it is a hard decision, we recognize the need and will follow their recommendation."

This is the second major layoff at HMC this year. In June, HMC let go 89 employees in its business and information management departments and outsourced the positions to a Tennessee-based firm.

Hawaii Medical Center LLC is the state's only for-profit hospital operator.

It bought the former St. Francis Medical Centers in Liliha and 'Ewa from St. Francis Health Care System in January 2007. The buyers consisted of Kansas-based Cardiovascular Hospitals of America LLC and a group of local doctors that owns 49 percent of the company.

At the time of the purchase, the two hospitals were steeped in losses and the new owners sought to bring the two medical facilities back to sound financial health. But that has proved to be more difficult than hospital officials anticipated.

This past legislative session, HMC asked elected officials for a break on the estimated $6 million a year it owes in general excised tax payments. That bill failed to pass.

Other hospitals across the state are facing similar financial problems because of government reductions in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. In the past month, North Hawaii Community and Kona Community hospitals on the Big Island announced they would lay off a total of 114 employees.

Richard Meiers, president and CEO of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, said the healthcare system here is "broken" because of the reimbursement issue and he doesn't expect an improvement anytime soon.

"Because of the lack of reimbursements by the state and federal governments over the last 10 years, the time was coming where hospitals were going to begin to fail, would begin to have to lay off people and cut services, and that's what's happening," Meiers said.