Trinity Health Care
of New England, which has several hospitals in Connecticut, said it is
furloughing some employees, adding clinical staff and cutting pay for
executives because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are working
tirelessly to prepare and respond to COVID-19, both in the immediate term and
over the weeks and months to come. We are doing everything we can to expand our
capacity, including increasing clinical staffing, beds and ventilators in
hospitals, expanding telehealth visits with physicians and expanding lab
testing and turnaround,” Trinity Health Of New England said in a statement.
The Trinity
Health of New England medical facilities include Saint Francis Hospital and
Medical Center, Mercy Medical Center, Saint Mary’s Hospital, Jefferson Memorial
Hospital and Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital.
“While the
majority of our colleagues will continue to work fulltime in their current
roles, we are redeploying some colleagues to different roles and locations,
reducing hours and temporarily furloughing a portion of our workforce,
primarily non-clinical colleagues. This will enable us to focus our resources
on the functions directly related to essential COVID-19 patient care needs we
anticipate, while protecting protect people and helping to prevent the spread
of the virus<” a statement from the medical group says.
Trinity
Health Of New England said it will
reduce the compensation of executive leaders, freeze all capital expenditures
except those supporting ministry and “significantly reduce our discretionary
spending.”
“These are difficult steps that are intended to make sure we are able to provide the best possible care for our patients and communities through this unprecedented time. We hope to bring back as many of our impacted colleagues as we can at the appropriate time, and, as the situation evolves, affected colleagues may be asked to serve Trinity Health in new ways,” Trinity Health Of New England said. Several other medical facilities and groups have also furloughed staff, including Day Kimball Healthcare and Connecticut Children’s.
