Oregon rural hospitals losing revenue, laying off workers

[TexasTowelie]

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Rural community hospitals in Oregon are seeing revenue plunge and resorting to laying off and firing employees to cope with a ban on elective surgeries while health officials battle the coronavirus outbreak.

Some hospitals have seen revenue decline as much as 60% in a month, said Becky Hultberg, CEO of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.

“Staffing is one of the hospital’s most significant costs. So as revenue declines, some hospitals have been forced to furlough or lay off staff,” she said.

Hospitals in the state have enough capacity to handle an expected peak in virus cases later this month, according to projections, but the association says it's too early to relax the restrictions.

Read more: https://tdn.com/news/state-and-regional/oregon/oregon-rural-hospitals-losing-revenue-laying-off-workers/article_1df2aaf3-77e7-545e-8238-d00aaae3c52c.html
(Longview Daily News)

[FloridaBlues]

1. Unfortunately this is happening in many hospitals

[TexasTowelie]

2. The rural hospitals are getting hit hard by the postponement of elective surgeries

and procedures, particularly those that are paid by private insurance. However, with the blood supply stretched relatively thin there isn't any other option.

My brother is a respiratory therapist who is with a durable medical equipment company and he had to set up an oxygen concentrator for his first COVID patient this week. However, I checked the data at the rural hospital where he was previously employed and they have already had three COVID patients. Considering that he is an at risk candidate for COVID, I'm grateful that he is no longer in the hospital setting.