TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) — Dr. Robert Kenagy, President and CEO of Stormont Vail Health, announced today a system-wide Crisis Compensation outline, among other details in a workforce plan.

Dr. Kenagy said the pandemic threatens the health and lives of those in our communities and also disrupts the hospital’s financial foundation.

“This juxtaposition is an ongoing challenge for all of us,” Dr. Kenagy said.

He said the hospital’s goal is to preserve the team. That means when sacrifice is required, it will be shared across the board.

A workforce plan that works to provide a paycheck for all team members has been created and will start on April 5, 2020. From there, the plan will be looked at every 30 days as the impact of the pandemic changes from month to month.

“We need clinical team members to continue to step up during the anticipated influx of COVID-19 positive patients, as well as care for all other patient needs,” Dr. Kenagy said. “We are preparing, training and investing in individuals who move to these areas of critical need.”

The workforce policy overview is below.

1. Implementation of system-wide Crisis Compensation rates:

Protects and preserves the team members who are in essential face to face patient care roles working in acute care and ambulatory settings. They will have no salary change.

All other team members will take a decrease in base pay rate: CEO – 35% Senior Vice President – 25% Vice President– 20% Administrative Director/Director – 15% All staff continuing to work onsite in non-patient facing roles or at home – 10% Team members on no work requirement administrative leave – 50%.

No team member’s base rate will drop below the Wellpower Wage of $12.45 per hour.

Physicians and Advanced Practice Clinicians will experience comparable decreases in compensation.

2. Labor Pool assignments may be available for team members who have no work requirement or are on Low Work Activity.

3. PTO and EIB will only accrue on hours worked. If a team member severs employment, then PTO will be paid at 50% at termination.

The plan ensures that all team members still have income even if they don’t have a work requirement.

The hospital currently has five COVID-19 Positive inpatients as of March 31, 2020.

Editor’s note: This article has been fixed to quote Dr. Kenagy accurately by saying “preparing, training, and investing in individuals who move to these areas of critical need” instead of “repairing.” We apologize for the error.