Heywood Healthcare, including Heywood Hospital, Athol Hospital, the Quabbin Retreat and Heywood Medical Group, announced it has experienced dramatic declines in outpatient volume and revenue since responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result, staffing and compensation adjustments affecting 290 employees will be implemented, according to a press release from Heywood Healthcare.
These losses translate into a 40-60 percent reduction in patient utilization for various services, resulting in a $5 million monthly revenue shortfall, it reports.
In a communication to Heywood staff, President and CEO Win Brown shared that swiftly addressing the decline in volume and declining revenue is critical to the health system’s ability to weather this crisis, and to ensure it is able to return to a stable health system.
The down-staffing measures include furloughs, utilizing LAD (low activity days), limited layoffs, reducing work hours, restructuring and reducing contracted services, as well as reductions in compensation affecting management across the health system.
Heywood Healthcare is one of thousands of hospitals across the commonwealth and the nation forced to make these difficult staffing adjustments, the organization shared.
“We must maintain our focus on ensuring our ability to provide the level of care our community needs,” Brown said in a prepared statement. “We are prepared to flex staffing as outpatient and inpatient volume requires, and maintain our commitment to provide the highest quality care to our patients, and to continue to lead and support our community through our urgent and primary care practices, food access programs, tele-behavioral health programs and transparent communications throughout this crisis.”