Laid off from Sanford Health.

What Sanford Health layoffs have meant for employees

If you're trying to place your layoff in this record, the merger date sorts most of it. Marshfield Clinic was a separate company through its 2023 and 2024 rounds, and it became a region of Sanford in January 2025, Becker's Hospital Review reported. Those earlier cuts came while Marshfield was losing money on its own, including an operating loss of $367.9 million in 2022, per Fierce Healthcare, and its deal with Essentia Health had just fallen through when the furloughs started. Sanford's name attaches to what came after. The first reported cut under the merger reached Sanford's own staff as well as Marshfield's, so if your job sat at Sanford Health Plan rather than in Wisconsin, that round may still be yours.

A quiet WARN record doesn't mean a quiet employer here. Neither the 2024 layoffs nor the 2025 cut made it into our WARN tracker, and nothing there carries Sanford's own name. What it has is seven Marshfield and Good Samaritan notices and closings, the newest from March 2023. Staff below director level still got 60 days in 2025, by WSAW's account, while directors and above left at once. So an empty state list tells you very little about a Sanford cut. If you got a letter, the dates in it tell you more.

The number that misleads runs the other way. Wisconsin's workforce department listed 377 Marshfield workers as layoffs in early 2023, though they were changing employers: Family Health Center was becoming a standalone organization, and The Leader-Telegram reported that the letter said each would be offered a position at current pay, location and seniority, with no need to reapply. Two larger moves sit beside it. Good Samaritan's CEO expected new providers to keep the staff at the locations it was leaving, per SiouxFalls.Business, and the Beaver Dam agreement would move a campus's employees to UW Health. If your job goes with a sale or a spin-off like these, pay, location and seniority are the test that 2023 letter set, and they're a fair yardstick for whatever a new employer puts in front of you.

Moves inside the system have come in different strengths, and the wording tells you which one you've got. Marshfield said people had been offered other positions in 2024. In 2025 the phrase in that Becker's report was "encouraged to apply." At Corsica, staff had the opportunity to transfer about 30 miles away, by Mitchell Republic's measure. An offered position is something you can say yes to. An invitation to apply leaves you competing for a posting. A transfer can keep the job and still change what it costs you to get there, so if you're weighing one, the pay and the drive are worth setting side by side.

Good Samaritan's closings at Mott and Corsica differ from the office cuts because the local work was tied to one site, the only home of its kind in town, even where staff could transfer elsewhere. In both cases the Society pointed to staffing. Whether the building stays available for care can decide whether comparable work returns to that town. At Mott, The Dickinson Press reported, Sanford confirmed a restriction barring health care use by a buyer. At Corsica, Dakota News Now reported a county hospital's plan to reopen with 14 to 18 rooms. If a local group is trying to keep a home open where you work, the sale terms can decide whether the building stays in care at all.

For the cuts and closings in Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska, those pages set out how an unemployment claim works in each state, and the state-by-state list covers Colorado and everywhere else Sanford operates.

A sourced history of Sanford Health layoffs

• November 2025, Good Samaritan closes Corsica nursing home

  Good Samaritan said in September it would close the South Dakota home over workforce shortages, affecting 68 employees, and Mitchell Republic reported they could transfer to Wagner or other locations. Dakota News Now later reported the closing.

• April 2025, about 96 roles cut after the Marshfield merger

  Sanford was laying off leadership and administrative staff in the Marshfield integration, Becker's Hospital Review reported, offering severance and career services. WSAW said they'd be laid off or repositioned, with 60 days and a June 10 last day below director level, while directors and above left immediately.

• April 2024, Marshfield notifies furloughed staff of terminations, before merger

  Marshfield furloughed staff in January after its Essentia Health merger fell through, then told many of them they'd be terminated in early May, Fierce Healthcare reported. It offered a severance package and said more than 60 had been offered other positions.

• March 2023, Marshfield lays off 346, before the merger

  The cuts came to almost 3 percent of staff, and 500 vacant jobs went unfilled, with Marshfield citing labor costs, supply expenses and reimbursements, WPR reported. A March 1 letter to Wisconsin covered 222 of them, with a May 19 date.

• January 2023, Good Samaritan plans exit from 15 states

  The Society said it would shrink from 22 states to seven over two years, and its CEO told SiouxFalls.Business that new providers were expected to keep the roughly 5,000 employees at those locations.

• October 2022, Sanford cuts non-clinical jobs to streamline leadership

  CEO Bill Gassen said the cuts would streamline leadership and simplify operations, primarily in non-clinical areas, SiouxFalls.Business reported. Many of those affected were offered other roles or encouraged to apply, and Sanford was hiring for more than 6,000 positions.

• May 2022, Mott nursing home closing announced

  Sanford-owned Good Samaritan cited staffing, fewer residents and rising costs, The Dickinson Press reported. City leaders said the North Dakota home would close July 22 and the building would be sold barred from health care use, which a Sanford spokeswoman confirmed.

What to do if you're laid off from Sanford Health

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Sanford Health's biggest hubs: Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Sanford Health's hub states run: Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.