Name: Painful pay cuts, furloughs to hit Madison hospitals
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Painful pay cuts, furloughs to hit Madison hospitals

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You have permission to edit this article.Citing massive revenue losses, UW Health and UnityPoint Meriter on Tuesday announced pay cuts and other measures that will put some nurses and support staff out of work to stanch the financial bleeding from the COVID-19 outbreak.“These are not easy changes and we had hoped to avoid them,” said UW Health CEO Alan Kaplan in a Tuesday morning email to faculty and staff. “While we were able to limit drastic reductions in the first few months of our response, the dramatic and continued deterioration of the health industry economics left us few options.”SSM St. Mary’s, the city’s third hospital operator, is facing similar revenue losses but hasn't announced specific plans.&nbsp;&nbsp;"To offset these losses, we are currently evaluating our expenditures to see what non-patient care related costs we can cut, delay or reduce for the sustainability of our organization," said St. Mary's spokeswoman Kim Sveum. "These steps are necessary to ensure our financial stability through the COVID-19 pandemic and into the future."All three local hospitals reported early in the response to the pandemic that they were postponing or cancelling all to free up capacity to deal with a potential surge in patients suffering from the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus pandemic.While hospitals feared that a potential surge would overwhelm hospital capacity, that surge hasn’t materialized yet. But preparations for it have dramatically reduced work loads for staff in clinics not directly involved in the pandemic response.Meanwhile, in a scenario that's , revenue from non-essential hospital procedures has evaporated.Kaplan said UW Health is projecting losses of $350 to $400 million between March 15 and June 30, largely because of a 62% reduction in surgeries and patient numbers that have been cut in half.Even with the changes, Kaplan said, UW Health expects to lose $100 million to $120 million in the fiscal year ending on June 30.Along with pay cuts and furloughs, UW Health has put construction at its east campus on hold and will not be filling vacant positions.No layoffs are currently expected.Kaplan said as CEO, he’s taking a 20% salary cut, along with other senior executives and clinical department chairs.Vice presidents, faculty physicians, non-physician faculty scientists and faculty psychologists will get a 15% reduction, and directors, managers and non-physician providers will see a 10% cut.Management will also be forgoing incentive plan payouts.There are no plans to cut pay for hourly workers, which includes most nurses.&nbsp;"Our hourly employees will not receive a pay cut to ensure that nurses and support staff caring for COVID patients will have no change made to their pay rate," Kaplan said.But the organization will be “flexing” hourly workers and salaried administrative and clinical staff to “match volume and work.”“We recognize these changes have the potential to significantly impact some of our hourly wage earners,” Kaplan said. “In addition to being able to use paid leave to mitigate the impact, we will be providing additional information to hourly staff about applying for unemployment compensation and other support available to help them during this time.”The measures will be in place from April 25 to at least June 20, at which point the measures will be reviewed in light of the COVID-19 situation.“We are not the only health system forced to make these tough decisions during the COVID-19 response,” Kaplan said. “This has been happening around the state and across the country, forcing many hospitals and health systems to make similar decisions.”At UnityPoint Health Systems, which including Meriter operates about 20 hospitals in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, executives will see a 15% pay cut, also beginning on April 26. Staffers will see reduced hours or furloughs.“The COVID-19 crisis has challenged UnityPoint Health as a care provider and as an employer,” said Kevin Vermeer, UnityPoint president and CEO, in a statement. “While we remain focused on providing the best care possible for our patients, it’s critical we conserve our resources wherever possible. These changes in our workforce are needed to ensure we can continue meeting the health care needs of our communities into the future.”Become a Cap Times member today and enjoy great benefits.Questions?{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

You have permission to edit this article.Citing massive revenue losses, UW Health and UnityPoint Meriter on Tuesday announced pay cuts and other measures that will put some nurses and support staff out of work to stanch the financial bleeding from the COVID-19 outbreak.“These are not easy changes and we had hoped to avoid them,” said UW Health CEO Alan Kaplan in a Tuesday morning email to faculty and staff. “While we were able to limit drastic reductions in the first few months of our response, the dramatic and continued deterioration of the health industry economics left us few...

Painful pay cuts, furloughs to hit Madison hospitals

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