The Mayo clinic is on a coronavirus ventilator.
The prestigious medical and research facility based in Rochester, Minn., announced that it will furlough employees, reduce doctors’ pay and reduce the hours of as many as 30,000 employees. It’s all due to the financial hit from having to close down all but coronavirus activities.
The research facility issued a statement that said doctors would take a financial hit but their jobs would be spared.
Approximately 30,000 staff from across all Mayo locations will receive reduced hours or some type of furlough, though the duration will vary depending on the work unit. As these will be furloughs, not layoffs, Mayo Clinic will continue to pay for the health care benefits for all of its employees while they are off work. Furloughs will begin in early May and will be spread through the rest of the year, with as many as possible happening through August. Doctors will not be furloughed, but will have a 10 percent wage reduction. Doctors who are senior managers will see reductions of 15 percent. Top executives are taking 20 percent reductions. Some of Mayo Clinic’s medical departments are mostly quiet, so some doctors may be “redeployed where needed most.
As I reported earlier, these kinds of cutbacks have been seen around the country, including the cutbacks of coronavirus nurses. Hospitals have been ordered to gear up for COVID-19 patients, but those overwhelming hospitalizations have not occurred, thankfully. In the meantime, the rest of the money-making aspects of medical work have been sidelined, draining hospitals of necessary resources.
The Post Bulletin reports the clinics have taken an unprecedented financial hit:
Hospitals on the Rochester campus are operating at 35 to 40 percent capacity, and surgical volume is at 25 to 30 percent of the level that was expected. About 60 percent of Mayo Clinic’s business comes from elective procedures of the kind that are now on hold.
This is latest step in Mayo Clinic’s financial stabilization strategy to address an anticipated $3 billion loss due to the pandemic forcing a temporary halt in all elective procedures and average medical appointments.
These cutbacks have been going on for the last couple of weeks at least.
Chalk this up as another gobsmacking result of the Wuhan virus.
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