UW Medicine announces furloughs due to COVID-19 costs

UW Medicine announced temporary furloughs for approximately 1,500 professional and classified non-union staff to help address the financial challenges caused by COVID-19. Leadership also notified relevant unions of its intent to furlough represented classified staff and is actively negotiating the impacts of those plans. These actions are necessary to address the unprecedented estimated financial impact of approximately $500 million to UW Medicine due to COVID-19.

Impacted employees, including those who have volunteered to participate, will be furloughed from one-to-eight weeks and will maintain benefits, including health insurance, during the furlough period. UW Medicine executive leaders, directors and managers are participating in furloughs along with staff across UW Medicine, including Harborview Medical Center, the two University of Washington Medical Center campuses, UW Neighborhood Clinics, Faculty Practice Plan Services, UW Medicine shared services and Airlift Northwest. Valley Medical Center has already taken several actions, including furloughs and staffing changes related to low census. In addition, the UW School of Medicine is working to finalize expense reduction plans.

“Any actions that impact our workforce, even temporarily, are taken only when all other options have been exhausted,” said Dr. Paul Ramsey, UW Medicine CEO. “While there are still many unknowns ahead, we believe furloughs combined with the other steps we have taken will put us in the best position to preserve jobs and continue to support the excellence of UW Medicine’s clinical, research and education programs.”

The financial situation is the result of substantial lost clinical revenue since the start of the pandemic due to the cancellation or postponement of elective and non-urgent surgeries and procedures and the high cost of treating patients with COVID-19, including diagnostic testing and high use of personal protective equipment (PPE) necessary to safely care for patients.

UW Medicine announced last week a series of steps to increase revenue and reduce expenses to stabilize its financial foundation. In addition to seeking reimbursements under federal and state programs for some of the lost net revenue and costs associated with COVID-19, UW Medicine is gradually resuming a full range of clinical services and designing long-term changes in how it delivers high-quality, safe and cost-effective care. UW Medicine has also taken urgent actions to reduce expenses, including reductions in the salaries for senior leaders and tight controls on spending.

As a system at the forefront of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, UW Medicine has played and continues to play a critical role in responding to the pandemic, including: developing tools, policies and procedures to create and enforce safe work environments for both patients and staff and sharing those learnings worldwide; developing rapid screening and testing for active COVID-19 as well as antibody testing; outreach and testing to vulnerable populations including the homeless and high-risk populations; developing models and projections to guide clinical and public health responses to the pandemic; and leading research on potential treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.

For details about UW Medicine, please visit http://uwmedicine.org/about.