Oaklawn Hospital in Marshall is implementing temporary pay cuts for employees, including those that are on the front lines of caring for COVID-19 positive patients. Certain positions are facing layoffs.

"Everyone will be impacted on some percentage of a reduction in salary," President and CEO of Oaklawn Hospital Greg Beeg said.

The measures are an attempt to reduce hospital expenditures. Due to the coronavirus outbreak and the cancellation of all elective surgeries, Oaklawn Hospital has seen a 60% decrease in revenue over the past several weeks, Beeg said.

Pay cuts range from 5% to 20%, depending on the size of the wage

The hospital has 1,150 employees across its organization and is the largest employer in Marshall.

Hourly employees will face a 5% wage cut, and most salaried employees will face a 10% cut, according to an email sent to Oaklawn employees on Thursday. Wages for physicians are being reduced by 15% and senior leadership wages will be cut by 20%.

"The higher the wage, the bigger the reduction," Beeg said.

'We wanted to do what's best for the entire organization ...'

Clinical staff on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak at Oaklawn are understandably angry, but Beeg said the cuts across the entire organization were necessary.

"We've all been sharing in this matter," he said. "We wanted to do what's best for the entire organization, so we believed it was necessary that all of us in some form or another work through this process and be part of this process."

Beeg said that while he was aware that some hospitals, especially those in "war zone COVID areas," such as New York and Detroit, were giving premium pay to employees treating COVID-19 patients.

"Just the fact that they've lost a lot of nurses due to illness and things of that nature, many of those organizations are giving premium pay to the COVID teams, but we're not in that position here," he said.

As of Thursday afternoon, Calhoun County had 58 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and the Calhoun County Public Health Department expects the number of cases to continue to rise.

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Eaton County, which Oaklawn Hospital serves a portion of, had 69 confirmed cases as of Thursday, and Jackson County, directly east of Calhoun County, has 131 confirmed cases.

Monday, local hospitals, including Oaklawn, said that they were preparing for a surge in the number of cases.

CEO expects pay cuts to last 2 or 3 months

Beeg said he expects the cuts to be temporary, two to three months at the most, and then the hospital will begin to bring employees back and restore salaries.

"This is going to be predicated on how long the executive orders from the governor continue on. Right now, it's through the end of April. We're hoping business can get back to normal within two to three months," he said. "Obviously, there's going to be a ramp-up period. We've lost 60% of our revenue, and it's not going to come back overnight."

If they contract COVID-19, employees must use their paid time off, but under the reductions, employees are unable to accrue any additional hours.

Beeg confirmed that most employees do not have enough paid time off to cover the necessary 14-day quarantine period for COVID-19, which means they would go unpaid if they got sick.

"We are working through that process right now. We are investigating that right now," he said.

Many other hospitals are forced to reduce payroll, CEO says

Many hospitals are facing similar challenges right now, Beeg said, and are being forced to reduce their payroll.

"This happened so quickly," he said. "A lot of times you can see things happening or kind of prepare, but...literally for the last month when all these executive orders were enacted, reducing and eliminating non-emergency procedures, it really pulled the carpet out from under all these hospitals."

Personal protective equipment continues to be a challenge at Oaklawn and hospitals across the country, but Beeg says the hospital has managed it judiciously and continues to work with partners to obtain more.

Hospital employees have been given garbage bags to wear as gowns, but Beeg said that it was a test project.

"By no means is that our standard," he said. "They do have access to all the necessary CDC requirements for approved PPE. And that includes N-95 masks, all the max air shield, gown, gloves and everything."

Employees are reusing masks, but Beeg said the hospital has been using a decontamination process that kills viruses by baking the masks at 170 degrees for 45 minutes every night.

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The hospital is partnering with several mask material manufacturers to run trials for the decontamination method. The process, which is being tested by Michigan State University and Sparrow Hospital, has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but Beeg said Oaklawn is helping mask manufacturers collect data.

"We're doing all the things we need to do to preserve and absolutely still maintain the safety of our employees as well as our patients," he said."We're going to be part of the solution."

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Beeg said he was aware that an employee has claimed staff were being reprimanded for wearing homemade masks under personal protective gear but said he couldn't speak specifically to the situation.

"I am not aware of anyone being reprimanded as it pertains to that," he said. "The nurses normally use the N-95 masks. I specifically can't address whether they can wear those under patient care conditions."

A lot of people are wearing homemade masks at the hospital, Beeg said, but most of them are not doing direct hands-on patient care.

Beeg said that he was sure that employees on the front lines would be able to continue to deliver high standards of care, despite the stress and challenges they are facing.

"All those great clinicians and providers went into health care to care for patients. That is why they went into the industry and this is just the short-term event that is happening in health care from the coronavirus, as well as the staffing reductions and the pay reductions," he said. "I thank our staff. They're doing a herculean job in very challenging times, and I greatly appreciate all their efforts in caring for our communities."

Help is "on the way," Beeg said, but with the way the situation continues to evolve and because of the time it takes for the government to issue relief funds, the measures Oaklawn Hospital is taking right now are necessary.

"Hospitals are paying out money, and we're just trying to prepare to make sure we have the ability to do so in the future," he said.

Contact Elena Durnbaugh at (269)243-5938 or edurnbaugh@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ElenaDurnbaugh.