Mayo Clinic is furloughing or reducing the hours of about 42 percent of its 70,000 employees across all of its campuses in an attempt to mitigate the financial losses from the COVID-19pandemic.
Department managers at the clinic have been reaching out to employees all week about these changes.
"Approximately 30,000 staff from across all Mayo locations will receive reduced hours or some type of furlough, though the duration will vary depending on the work unit," according to a statement on Wednesday from spokeswoman Ginger Plumbo.
As these will be furloughs, not layoffs, Mayo Clinic will continue to pay for the health care benefits for all of its employees while they are off work.
"Furloughs will begin in early May and will be spread through the rest of the year, with as many as possible happening through August," added Plumbo.
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Doctors will not be furloughed, but will have a 10 percent wage reduction. Doctors who are senior managers will see reductions of15 percent. Top executives are taking 20 percent reductions.
Some of Mayo Clinic's medical departments are mostly quiet, so some doctors may be "redeployed where needed most," according to Mayo.
Hospitals on the Rochester campus are operating at 35 to 40percent capacity, and surgical volume is at 25 to 30 percent of the level that was expected. About 60 percent of Mayo Clinic's business comes from elective procedures of the kind that are now on hold.
This is latest step in Mayo Clinic's financial stabilization strategy to address an anticipated $3 billion loss due to the pandemic forcing a temporary halt in all elective procedures and average medical appointments.
At the end of March, Mayo Clinic started by furloughing an undisclosed number of supplemental and contract employees.
Soon after that, a wider plan was announced with furloughs and wage reductions marked to save $1.4 billion.
A hiring freeze, the furloughs of supplemental and contract workers and halting major construction projects are expected to save $700 million. Projects being shelved for now include a planned parking garage at Discovery Square and expansion of four clinical floors of clinical space to the top of Gonda Building. The Gonda project is also expected to include a seven-story private luxury hotel.
Mayo Clinic is also tapping into a portion of its reserves to add $900 million to the mix.
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Other health care institutions, like Olmsted Medical Center, have taken similar steps.
