DERBY — How does a health provider furlough employees during a global pandemic that has contributed to 54 deaths locally as of April 14?
It’s a question that rocketed across Valley social media Tuesday as news spread that Griffin Health furloughed 99 employees.
The furloughs are spread throughout Griffin Health: Griffin Hospital, outpatients services and Griffin Faculty Physicians.
In a statement (see below) shared with The Valley Indy Tuesday, Griffin Health said the furloughs aren’t impacting its COVID-19 response:
“In an effort to preserve its ability to deliver the exceptional care that its community has come to expect from Griffin, the hospital has reallocated its diminished financial resources to support caregivers on the front line of the epidemic,” the organization said.
Bigger Picture
The furloughs happening at Griffin Health are not happening in a vacuum. Furloughs and layoffs are starting to happen at healthcare providers across the U.S.
The first bad news arrived last month, when the U.S. healthcare sector as a whole lost 43,000 jobs between February and March.
That happened as the COVID-19 virus hit the mainland, according to Altarum, a nonprofit research and consulting organization that concentrates on healthcare.
The healthcare sector generally withstands economic storms, including the 2008 recession, but not this time. The job losses in March were the worst in 30 years.
The following is from an April 3 article on Altarum’s website written by Ani Turner, the org’s co-director of sustainable health spending strategies:
“This may seem counterintuitive as we read daily of health care providers caring for COVID-19 patients stretched to capacity, but other types of health services have been shutting down like the rest of the service economy.
This month’s losses were concentrated in ambulatory care settings, including physician offices, dental offices, and offices of other practitioners.
As non-essential visits were cancelled, and states began ordering social distancing, such offices were closed. Even telemedicine visits, directly linking providers to patients, reduce the use of support staff.”
Hospital-specific positions actually remained stable in that first wave of healthcare sector layoffs, Altarum reported. But that has started to change, as a slew of hospitals make announcements like the one from Griffin Health.
As routine (money making) medical visits and elective procedures were canceled, hospitals were also spending money to build spaces custom-made to treat seriously ill COVID-19 patients, such as negative-pressure rooms.
“The combination of intensive and costly COVID-19 care and the loss of high-margin discretionary procedures is devastating for hospital finances,” Turner wrote.
Example — The Washington Post reported April 9 that Beaumont Health is Michigan is losing $100 million a month
Vox started tracking some of the announcements in a post published April 8.
Back To The Valley
The news reports give context to the 500-plus word statement issued this week by Griffin Health explaining its decision to furlough 99 people — employees who were “working mostly in non-patient care areas,” that Griffin “expects to recall in six to eight weeks.”
Griffin Health expects to lose $6 million a month, a combination of spending money to deal with COVID-19 and a steep revenue decline caused by public health mandates that have curtailed many normal functions.
From the statement, which is published in full at the end of this post:
“Like many other hospitals and health systems throughout Connecticut and across the country, Griffin is experiencing extraordinary adverse financial impact from the COVID-19 epidemic resulting from the need to make significant unbudgeted investments in facility modifications, direct caregiver staff expansion and personal protective equipment acquisition while suffering a dramatic loss of revenue due to an unprecedented decrease in patient care activity across almost every service line.”
Stats from Griffin Health impacting the bottom line:
- 50 percent decrease in outpatient activity (including physical therapy, diagnostic radiology, and outpatient behavioral health)
- 30 percent decrease in emergency department visits
- Elective surgery curtailed inline with government guidelines
- Reduction in screening services, such as colonoscopies and mammograms
Meanwhile Griffin Health has:
- Tripled its negative pressure room bed capacity to treat COVID-19 patients
- Established a call center to keep the public informed
- Opened a drive-up testing facility (doc’s order needed)
- Purchased more personal protective equipment
Other steps Griffin is taking to cut costs:
- Reducing salaries for senior managers by up to 20 percent
“The action taken was necessary to ensure that Griffin’s courageous and dedicated caregivers on the front line of the COVID-19 epidemic have the resources they need and that Griffin Health’s financial viability is preserved,” Griffin Health CEO Patrick Charmel said in the statement. “We regret having to furlough members of the Griffin Health family and hope that state, federal, and Griffin Health support is sufficient to limit any resulting hardship. We also hope that the COVID-19 epidemic will wane quickly and that the furlough period will be brief.”
The complete statement is below:
Ensuring adequate capacity and resources during the COVID-19 health emergency
Griffin Health is leading the COVID-19 response in the Lower Naugatuck Valley and has worked diligently to expand capabilities and capacity to meet the challenges posed by the novel coronavirus epidemic. Griffin Hospital made modifications to its Emergency Department to ensure the safe and effective evaluation and treatment of COVID-19 patients. Additionally, it more than tripled its negative pressure room bed capacity for the treatment of patients with respiratory illness, established a call-center to help ease concerns and educate the public, and opened a drive through COVID-19 testing collection site to diagnose COVID-19 infection and track the spread of the virus.
Like many other hospitals and health systems throughout Connecticut and across the country, Griffin is experiencing extraordinary adverse financial impact from the COVID-19 epidemic resulting from the need to make significant unbudgeted investments in facility modifications, direct caregiver staff expansion and personal protective equipment acquisition while suffering a dramatic loss of revenue due to an unprecedented decrease in patient care activity across almost every service line. Outpatient activity including diagnostic radiology, physical therapy, and outpatient behavioral health has decreased by more than 50%. Emergency Department volume has dropped by approximately 30%. Elective surgery has been curtailed consistent with government guidelines as have screening services such as colonoscopy and mammography. The overall revenue shortfall is expected to be more than $6,000,000 per month.
In an effort to preserve its ability to deliver the exceptional care that its community has come to expect from Griffin, the hospital has reallocated its diminished financial resources to support caregivers on the front line of the epidemic. Any available Griffin staff members qualified to fill needed caregiving roles are being redeployed to expand inpatient capacity. While the vast majority of Griffin Health’s staff members will remain fully employed, Griffin made the difficult decision to furlough individuals assigned to departments that have ceased operation or that have experienced a substantial reduction in patient care activity or operational workload and who cannot be repurposed to deliver or support the delivery of direct patient care to hospitalized patients.
Specifically, Griffin furloughed 99 staff members working mostly in non-patient care areas. In addition, 70 caregivers were redeployed from departments or physician practices that have experienced reduced activity to inpatient units in order to expand capacity to accommodate the surge of patients with COVID-19 infection that the hospital is now experiencing.
Griffin has taken steps to limit the negative financial impact on its furloughed staff members that it expects to recall in 6 to 8 weeks and to spread the burden of needed labor cost reduction as much as possible across the organization by measures that include reducing the salary of its management staff including all senior leaders by up to 20%.
“The action taken was necessary to ensure that Griffin’s courageous and dedicated caregivers on the front line of the COVID-19 epidemic have the resources they need and that Griffin Health’s financial viability is preserved,” said Griffin Health CEO, Patrick Charmel. “We regret having to furlough members of the Griffin Health family and hope that state, federal, and Griffin Health support is sufficient to limit any resulting hardship. We also hope that the COVID-19 epidemic will wane quickly and that the furlough period will be brief.”
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