Updated: Major KY hospitals try pay cuts, furloughs, more changes due to coronavirus
Baptist Health announced furloughs, pay cuts and more staff changes Thursday across its Kentucky system because of the unprecedented effects of the coronavirus.
The University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital also has told workers it will redeploy some employees while others will have to apply for unemployment.
Suspensions of elective surgeries and diagnostic tests helped force the temporary layoffs.
Salary reductions will affect top Baptist leaders. System executives and hospital presidents have taken a 20 percent pay cut, and other vice presidents and executive leaders have taken a 15 percent pay cut, according to the Baptist Health announcement. The staffing and other changes will hit all eight hospitals, the Baptist Health Medical Group and the corporate headquarters.
Baptist Health Lexington has 2,700 employees in Lexington and its medical group employs 1,468 across Lexington, Richmond and Corbin, according to the operation’s spokeswoman Ruth Ann Childers.
Furloughs will start Sunday and affect regular full-time and part-time employees who don’t support caregivers or aren’t critical to clinical operations related to COVID-19, Baptist Health said.
“Our intent is to return to normal operations as soon as possible, and begin calling back employees. This is just a temporary measure,” Baptist Health CEO Gerard Colman said in a statement. “We value our employees, who are the key to our success, and will continue to be the key to our success going forward. But, first and foremost, we need to ensure we will be here when our communities need us most.”
Restarting elective surgeries unlikely to happen instantly
When operations do return to normal, suspended procedures may be returned to full strength over time rather than all at once, said Stephen Toadvine, vice president at Baptist Health Lexington. Employees are being asked to remain available and ready to be called back on “relatively short notice.”
“Hopefully it’s only a few weeks in length,” he said. “We really want to get those folks back to work as soon as possible.”
Returning to normal operations depends on the timeline of “the surge” of coronavirus cases, Toadvine said. The suspension of elective operations has been done to preserve space and equipment and reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 in the hospital.
“The things that have been instituted in Kentucky have been very helpful in mitigating against the surge,” he said.
Some of the furloughs will involve reduced work schedules, while others will relieve employees of all job duties. Furloughed employees are eligible for unemployment compensation, and they will remain eligible for their medical benefits, Baptist Health said in its announcement.
Baptist Health decided to start furloughs now to make sure affected employees could take advantage of expanded unemployment compensation, Toadvine said.
Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday that Kentucky has received federal funding that will allow the state to begin distributing an additional $600 per week to people receiving unemployment as early as Thursday.
“The thought was it was helpful to them to allow them to go ahead and apply for the unemployment benefits available right now, with the enhanced benefits and increased participation,” he said.
The changes have been made to focus resources toward coronavirus patient care, Baptist Health said. However, the hospitals are still open and delivering necessary care, Toadvine said.
“We don’t want any patients, community members, to perceive that they need to avoid or delay necessary care,” he said. “We don’t want folks to be fearful of coming to the hospital.”
UK Hospital also making temporary staff changes
Some UK Hospital staff will be reassigned. Those who can’t be redeployed will have to use accrued vacation, holiday or bonus leave days, according to an email sent to staff members by Dr. Mark F. Newman, executive vice president for health affairs.
When they run out of accrued time off, the employees will be eligible to apply for unemployment. UK will cover health care benefits for up to 90 days or until the employee returns to work, and employees will not pay a health care premium during that time, according to the email.
The changes will affect UK’s clinics and the hospital, which employ around 10,400 people, spokesman Jay Blanton said. UK HealthCare has over 11,000 employees in total. College of Medicine researchers and educators are not affected, he said.
Redeployment is expected to be focused on regular, permanent full-time and part-time employees, he added.
The workload changes will take effect April 25, the email stated.
The temporary changes also require employees to use paid sick leave days if they contract any illnesses, including coronavirus, the email said. Some employees are eligible to use emergency leave or “any bank of previously accrued sick leave,” the email said.
“UK HealthCare maintains a paid sick leave policy, in which our employees accrue sick time – one day [a] month – and can roll that over year to year,” Blanton said. “It never expires. That is our approach to these issues.”
Blanton did not specify what would happen to part-time employees working under 20 hours per week who do not earn benefits.
Other employees who aren’t able to be reassigned after April 25 will continue to accrue time off.
Coronavirus fallout hits smaller hospitals as well
Baptist Health and UK are not the only health care providers forced to cut expenses. St. Claire Healthcare in Morehead also had to furlough 300 employees, which was reported on March 26. Appalachian Regional Healthcare furloughed about 500 employees, which was reported on March 27.
“It’s very unfortunate, it’s just another economic fallout as a result of this pandemic,” said Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley. “This pandemic is having an impact on every industry, including the health care industry.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 11:07 AM.