WATSONVILLE—Facing declining revenues, Watsonville Community Hospital has laid off about 10 employees, a little more than 1 percent of its workforce, Halsen Healthcare CEO Dan Brothman confirmed Wednesday.
Brothman said the move was in response to a decline in elective surgeries, and to emergency room visits, both of which have occurred since the shelter-in-place order by Gov. Gavin Newsom has largely kept people in their residences.
According to Brothman, the hospital’s ER typically sees 85-110 people in a day, but in the past two weeks that number has dropped to about 40.
“That’s a dramatic reduction,” he said.
Brothman said that the same problem is occurring at hospitals across the U.S.
“It’s very difficult to do this,” he said. “All these people are members of our family. We’re doing it to be good stewards of our hospital.”
Brothman did not name the departments from which the layoffs occurred.
He also did not say whether the employees would be reinstated once the COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease up.
“I can’t speculate, because the world as we know it is different,” he said.
WCH nurse Roseann Farris questioned the decision to lay off employees during a pandemic.
“Our community deserves to have excellent healthcare, and our nurses at the hospital deserve to be safe, and we’re calling on our employers to do that,” she said.
Farris also said that several employees received WARN notices–short for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification–which she said are required by employers when making decisions that affect 50 or more employees.
WCH ER nurse Quiche Rubalcava said that employees were planning a candlelight vigil Thursday night to protest the layoffs.
Brothman explained that the notices included employees that were reassigned, and that the number does not reflect the actual number of layoffs.
Dominican Hospital spokeswoman Claire Henry said Wednesday that the hospital has the staff needed to care for its patients, including those who may have COVID-19.
Henry said the hospital is looking to shift employees to other departments to help weather the unpredictable nature of the pandemic.
“All of our team members will only provide care they are qualified to provide, and in some instances, team members may undergo some training in order to expand their skill set,” she said.
Salud Para La Gente, too, has faced staff reductions after limiting its preventative care to combat the spread of COVID-19, according to CEO Dori Rose Inda. The community clinic still offers prenatal care, Well Care for kids 4 and under, emergency dental and eye care and sick visits, including cold, flu and upper respiratory infections. Other services, however, have moved over the phone.
Inda said the organization has applied for a loan as part of the Paycheck Protection Program, one part of the $2.2 trillion CARES act passed by federal lawmakers. It also recently received $1,026,020 from another part of the unprecedented collection of bills.
“We’re cautiously optimistic about the help we will get,” she said.
