Doctors, nurses, and other staffers at Stanford Health Care, including some caring for patients with the coronavirus, will have their pay cut as the health system struggles to deal with the economic blow the virus has dealt it over the last month.
Employees at Stanford Hospital, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, and Stanford Health Care — ValleyCare were stunned by the news, which came via a tip sheet circulated over the weekend, according to Palo Alto Weekly.
“It’s just crazy. The governor was saying that we had the highest death rate (of COVID-19 patients) yesterday, and here they want to cut staff. I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Linda Cornell, a secretary at a nursing unit at the facility.
The hospital has seen a nearly 40% decrease in emergency room visits since the outbreak of the virus, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Several of the nation’s largest healthcare facilities have been forced to lay off employees or reduce pay as hundreds of thousands of people across the country self-ration healthcare to avoid visiting medical offices or even go out in public.
Leading U.S. health officials have urged people to hold off on elective medical procedures until the spread of the virus has dramatically slowed.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom last month mandated hospitals such as Stanford Medical Center shutter any procedure deemed not to be an emergency. He relaxed some of those restrictions last week.
Stanford assured patients quality of care would not be affected by the cut in employee pay.
“This measure will not impact any of our operations,” the system said in a statement. “We continue to provide the safest, highest quality care for our patients and remain dedicated to pioneering research and effective clinical therapies to address this evolving situation. We are immensely proud of our community at Stanford Health Care, and we thank our employees for their tireless efforts and ongoing support during these challenging times.”
