With the focus on COVID-19 response, UnityPoint Health system, which includes Madison’s Meriter Hospital, has announced plans to implement reduced hours for certain staff, limited furloughs, and executive pay cuts.
In announcing the staff changes, UnityPoint Health notes that its hospitals and clinics are facing unprecedented challenges and volume declines as a result of the global pandemic, and that these steps are necessary to ensure the system emerges from the current situation in a strong position.
The steps also include pausing elective services, deferring or delaying all capital projects, and reducing unnecessary spending. “These changes in our workforce are needed to ensure we can continue meeting the health care needs of our communities into the future,” UnityPoint Health President and CEO Kevin Vermeer said in a prepared statement.
Beginning in some regions as soon as April 26, 2020, the organization is implementing the following changes:
• Short-term, limited reduction in hours for administrative, support, ancillary and clinical
team members and leaders;
• Reduction in hours available to work or furloughs for those areas that are not operating
at capacity or experiencing closures; and
• 15 percent average reduction in executive pay.
UnityPoint Health is providing resources to affected team members, including continuation of benefits and financial assistance resources where applicable.
Unity Point Health did not indicate how the staff changes would affect Madison but Christine Zrostlik, senior media relations specialist, indicated they would affect all hospitals, clinics, home care, and support areas across the system. “Over half of UnityPoint Health’s team members are impacted as a result of the lower volumes, cancellation of elective procedures, and temporary closures of services creating a reduction in hours and associated compensation,” she said in a statement released Tuesday. “The majority of team members who are directly caring for COVID-19 patients will not be affected as a result of these changes.”
