Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals’ parent company furloughs 10% of staff
As hospitals across the country have re-directed resources to coronavirus care and canceled money-making elective procedures, the parent company of Coastal Carolina and Hilton Head Hospitals, Tenet Healthcare, furloughed 10% of its staff across the U.S. on Wednesday.
The roles affected reportedly included administrative positions and health care workers involved in elective procedures, like knee replacements or routine colonoscopies. The cuts were first reported by Reuters.
A Tenet spokesperson declined to say how many employees were furloughed at the two Lowcountry hospitals but said the cuts impact less than 3% of the company’s hospital staff nationwide, the rest affecting administrative employees.
While Coastal Carolina and Hilton Head Hospitals have diverted necessary resources to battling coronavirus, the pandemic has forced them to take cost-saving measures like “flexing down costs and implementing furloughs for certain jobs where we need, or are required to, limit activity due to the current environment,” said Hilton Head Regional Healthcare CEO Jeremy Clark in an emailed statement.
The cuts do not affect “direct bedside nursing care for COVID-19” or “emergency or medically necessary care for patients with other medical conditions,” he said, adding that the hospitals remain staffed and prepared for a potential surge in coronavirus patients.
In addition to the hospitals in Beaufort and Jasper Counties, Tenet owns two other South Carolina facilities in Mount Pleasant and Rock Hill. The Dallas-based company had previously postponed matching payments into workers’ 401(k) retirement plans, citing coronavirus-related financial pressures.
Clark said furloughed employees will continue to receive medical benefits, with employee premiums temporarily covered, and be provided their 401(k) match now, in addition to being able to access state unemployment benefits.
“For many roles, these benefits could provide eligible individuals with a significant majority of their income as a replacement,” he said, adding that the hospitals intend to re-hire affected staff “once we navigate this unprecedented time and our core business gets back to normal.”
S.C. hospitals face financial pressure as COVID-19 limits operations
Tenet employees joined workers at the largest hospital organizations in South Carolina who have already faced pay cuts, reduced hours and layoffs. In recent weeks, the state’s hospitals have been running at close to 50% occupancy, canceling elective surgeries that make up a key part of their revenue.
The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), which employs more than 17,000 people, laid off about 900 people on April 6 and sliced pay by 15% across its staff of salaried workers.
Prisma Health, the largest nonprofit hospital chain in the state, furloughed or reduced hours for 3,900 of its 30,000-person workforce on April 9, citing a 25% decrease in net revenue in March, reported The State.
Officials with both hospital systems emphasized that cuts did not affect frontline health care workers treating COVID-19 patients.
Elective care brings in significant revenue for hospitals. Now that such procedures have been shut down to focus on coronavirus, U.S. hospitals are facing “serious financial hardship,” according to a letter from the American Hospital Association sent to Congress last month.
Predicting the current surge the country is facing, the letter reads, “It is clear that the expenses associated with responding to COVID-19 will be extraordinary. It also is clear that in those communities that are experiencing community spread, these expenses are already being incurred, creating a significant cash flow problem.”
