St. Joseph’s Health furloughs 500 employees amid COVID-19 revenue decline

SYRACUSE — St. Joseph’s Health has furloughed about 500 employees as the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly reduced the hospital’s revenue streams from non-essential surgeries and patient visits.

The staff who have been furloughed are those “who do not have work that is directly related to our most critical needs during this pandemic,” according to a message to employees from Leslie Luke, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Health, which the organization provided to CNYBJ.

The furloughed employees retain several benefits such as health, dental, and basic life insurance, and St. Joseph’s “intent is to bring them back to work when demand for care returns.”

“As you well know, this unprecedented event has created a serious disruption to our operations, our colleagues, and the people we serve. While we are well prepared for the increase in inpatient volumes anticipated with the local COVID-19 surge, we are not generating enough revenue to cover the significant losses associated with state-mandated cancellations of outpatient procedures and visits,” Luke wrote.

Luke said that St. Joseph’s Health has also reduced all discretionary spending and has frozen all capital expenditures. And, the health system has cut pay for all senior leaders (vice presidents and above). It has also redeployed about 150 employees to different roles and locations across the system, and reduced some full-time schedules to part time.

Luke also noted that the federal relief package (the CARES Act) will help offset some of the increased costs for health-care providers, but “it will not fully cover the deficits we are incurring.”

Luke had first notified staff that he was planning for an unspecified number of furloughs in a memo that St. Joseph’s forwarded to CNYBJ earlier this month.