Over 150 employees at SOVAH Health to shift to new contractor in Southside

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Over 150 SOVAH Health workers in Southside will soon be working under a different contractor.

Currently, SOVAH Health contracts with Sudexo to hire employees for the environmental services, laundry and dietary departments. The contract with Sudexo expires next month, so employees in those departments will be laid off and then rehired by a new company called HHS if they want to be. 

This will impact 91 Danville employees and 67 Martinsville employees, according to a Virginia Warn notice. 

The change is effective November 6. 

WSLS reported in June that the Danville and Martinsville hospitals were becoming one, called SOVAH Health, with the hospitals acting as SOVAH Health's Danville and Martinsville campuses. The merger was expected to take several months to complete. 

Here is the statement from SOVAH Health: 

At Sovah Health, we take great pride in serving the healthcare needs of our community, and we take seriously our responsibility as one of the region’s key employers. We work daily to create places people choose to come for healthcare, physicians want to practice, and employees want to work.

After careful thought and consideration, Sovah Health has decided to transition our environmental services (EVS) and food services (Dietary) to a new service partner, HHS. At our Martinsville campus, HHS will also oversee our linen utilization management (Laundry). This transition, which takes effect November 6, means that these positions will no longer be employed by the hospital or managed by our current partner Sodexo after November 5. All affected employees will be offered employment with HHS.

Since our Martinsville contract with Sodexo will expire in November, we felt that now was the opportune time for Sovah Health to consider a new service partner. Known for patient satisfaction, cleanliness and quality, HHS is an industry leader in managing EVS, Dietary and Laundry for hundreds of healthcare facilities across the United States. This transition will enable us to better coordinate these services as we move forward as a system.

As part of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, we are legally required to file notices with our local and state governments. These changes will affect 91 Danville employees and 67 Martinsville employees; however, all affected employees will be offered a position at their current salary by HHS.

We are extremely proud of the work these departments have been doing to support our physicians, staff and patients, and we sincerely hope that each one of our employees chooses to continue with HHS and remain a part of our team.