Layoffs for Detroit-based Public Health agency

**Hypestyles** · September-25-14, 09:48 AM

from Crain's Detroit: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...-department-toOriginally Published: September 22, 2014 11:00 PM Modified: September 23, 2014 2:19 PM

Institute for Population Health, acting Detroit health department, to lay off 135 workers

The nonprofit, which acts as the city's health department, wasn't the winning bidder for a number of health-services contracts.

By Amy Haimerl

The Institute for Population Health, a nonprofit that acts as the city of Detroit’s health department, will lay off about 135 employees starting Friday.
The news came in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice filed with the state Sept. 15.
“The downsizing is a result of notice of the reallocation of funding for services,” Loretta Davis, CEO of the Institute for Population Health, wrote in the WARN filing.
But the layoffs and reallocation of funding don’t mean the health department is coming back under city control.
“Nothing is coming in-house,” said Alexis Wiley, chief of staff to Mayor Mike Duggan.
However, Davis later said that immunization services would be returning to the city's department of health and wellness promotion.
Last October, the city transferred most public health duties — including food safety and immunizations as well as the Women, Infants and Children [[WIC) nutrition program — to the institute as part of a cost-cutting method championed by Mayor Dave Bing.