Editor's note: Mercy Health clarified to 21 News that the layoffs are for remote schedulers who work around the US only. It also corrects the story to state the scheduling is for primary care facilities.

The Mercy Health network is reducing its workforce, announcing layoffs for remote Valley workers and employees around the US on Friday.

The layoffs are happening from within Mercy's ECC department, which consists of scheduling for patients for its primary care facilities.

Mercy Health cites decreased call volumes to the scheduling call center as the need to outsource the services.

Mercy Health says it is looking to find other opportunities for the displaced workers within the ministry and provide support as this moves forward.  

21 News reached out to Mercy Health spokesperson Kara Franz, who issued the following statement:

As we work to fulfill our Mission and focus on providing high-quality, compassionate care, we continue to evolve and improve the patient experience. Our patients have expressed that they are looking for more self-service tools and technology that provide flexibility to engage and schedule with their health care provider when and how they want. As a result, we’ve been working to overhaul our scheduling capabilities and are taking a holistic approach to supporting our patients, prioritizing online self-scheduling and moving acute issues and specialist scheduling back to the practices.

Because we’ve also seen decreased call volumes in our scheduling call center, we have decided to partner with a third party to operate our enterprise contact center for primary care scheduling. As a result, a number of call center positions may be impacted. We are committed to treating each affected associate with dignity and respect, helping them identify opportunities within the ministry and providing support, guidance and benefits as they move forward.  
 
21 News asked how many workers are being laid off, and Franz said this "impacts less than 300 remote workers from across the country."