Several major Valley healthcare providers are cutting salaries and furloughing employees to make up for financial losses during the coronavirus epidemic.
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Dignity Health, Banner Health, and Mayo Clinic have confirmed to ABC15 plans to reduce labor costs.
Some other medical providers say they, too, are making cutbacks. MomDoc, which is a group of women's healthcare offices, will cut salaries up to 20 percent, based on employees pay.
"We see those cues," MomDoc CEO Nick Goodman said. "When we watch major players in healthcare, like Mayo Clinic, announce pay cuts until the end of the year that tells us that the major people that have much larger teams to analyze and figure this out have determined that this economic downturn will be long-lasting."
While it may seem counterintuitive to reduce medical staff during a pandemic, the hospitals indicated that frontline COVID-19 staff would not be affected. Instead, the salary changes will impact executive and health workers who are doing little to no work due to canceled appointments and surgeries.
Last month, Governor Doug Ducey issued an executive order requiring elective surgeries to be canceled. He also required hospitals to increase bed availability and ICU supplies to care for a surge of coronavirus patients. Hospitals have said the changes significantly reduced their cash flow.
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