University of Kentucky furloughs 1,700 staff; 1,500 work in healthcare
The University of Kentucky announced Thursday that 1,700 employees, including 1,500 in health care, will be furloughed to help make up for coronavirus-related revenue shortfalls.
In an email sent to campus Thursday, President Eli Capilouto said in addition to the 1,500 full and part-time staff at UK HealthCare, the 200 university employees who will be furloughed work in several UK departments.
“The rest work in campus units — UK Transportation Services, UK Dining and UK Dentistry Clinics, where clinical efforts have been suspended in response to COVID-19,” Capilouto wrote. “We also are closing the Hilary J. Boone Center, a dining and events facility, which will result in a reduction in force affecting seven people.”
Capilouto said UK HealthCare has seen dramatic reductions in the number of services offered after elective procedures were canceled statewide last month to allow hospitals to ramp up resources and staff to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic.
“UK HealthCare has invested some $20 million in COVID-related expenses, including drive-through testing capacity and a robust tele-health option for patients,” Capilouto said. “But, as elective procedures have been suspended or delayed, there has been a 45 percent reduction in outpatient volumes and a 34 percent decrease in inpatient visits in April.”
The university will continue to pay its and employees’ health insurance payments during furlough for up to 90 days, campus officials have previously said.
Employees can also use paid vacation and other leave time. The furloughs will start April 26. Those who are furloughed are eligible to apply for unemployment, the university said.
Capilouto said he hopes the furloughs will only be for a short period. The amount of time an employee is on furlough will likely depend on the job.
“For some employees, low operational activity/administrative no-pay status may last only a few days; for others, this could be a several-week process,” Capilouto said.
Capilouto also cautioned that other furloughs could be on the horizon for departments that have seen dramatic cuts in work due to coronavirus-related shutdowns.
“Our hope is to have those impacted community members rejoin our work as soon as possible. We are making these decisions — and others like them, if we have to — thoughtfully and compassionately, as we seek to protect the institution and its capacity to serve for the long term,” Capilouto said.
At UK HealthCare, some employees may be furloughed for as little as a week; others may be furloughed for up to 10 weeks through July 4, said Dr. Mark Newman, UK’s executive vice president for health affairs.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced earlier this week that some elective procedures in healthcare will restart on Monday. That could help get now-idle health care employees back to work, said Jay Blanton, a spokesman for the university.
“If patient volumes return quickly, we will be able to return people to work more quickly as well,” Blanton said. ”But the fact is that our patient volumes at our clinics right now are down nearly half. That’s significant.”
On Tuesday, Capilouto announced the university was projecting a more than $70 million shortfall for the fiscal year that begins July 1. That shortfall was only for the university and did not include UK HealthCare.
In addition to furloughs, university officials said layoffs may also be looming. On Tuesday, the university said it was difficult to know how many staff could be affected by layoffs. Division directors will be given a target amount to cut. How those cuts will be achieved will be up to those directors.
In addition, the university also slashed retirement contributions from 10 percent of employees’ salaries to 5 percent. UK has frozen all new hires and merit raises.
But UK has not slashed pay for top-earning administrators as part of its cost-cutting measures. Several other universities, including the University of Louisville, have cut pay, particularly for those who make more than $100,000.
“It is not part of these reductions,” Blanton said of pay cuts. Blanton said after talking to staff, they decided to cut retirement contributions rather than pay. Cuts to pay also affect retirement benefits because those benefits are determined by a percentage of employee pay.
“As we talked to people throughout the institution, it was clear that if we needed to take additional steps, adjusting benefits first, in the way we did, would be a preferred option,” Blanton said. “If you cut pay, it’s essentially a double hit to people. You are impacting pay and benefits. We took the step of reducing benefits first. “
Baptist Health also announced furloughs and pay cuts earlier this month due to the suspension of many services.
UK Athletics, which is financially independent, has not yet announced cuts but will likely do so soon, a spokesman said Tuesday.
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 3:02 PM with the headline "University of Kentucky furloughs 1,700 staff; 1,500 work in healthcare."
