A patient born at a hospital in the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help the Philadelphia-based system offset some of the financial losses attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to WITF.
While Einstein Healthcare Network is not at risk of closing from the pandemic, the organization is a safety-net facility that cares for an underserved community, according to the report. As a safety-net hospital, Einstein Healthcare operates on a thin margin.
The health system expects patient service revenue to come in $105 million below projections in fiscal year 2020, which is a drop of about 8 percent. The anticipated drop was attributed to a halt in elective surgeries and increase in spending to prepare for a surge of COVID-19 patients.
"That is a devastating financial undertaking for any health system, but just imagine a safety-net hospital like Einstein that cares for the underserved, that doesn’t operate with a margin of cushion. There’s not room to absorb any of that," Dixie James, the medical center's president and COO, told WITF.
Although the health system recently implemented executive pay cuts and furloughed workers in an effort to offset some of the losses, Einstein is warning that more cuts are likely, according to the report.
In deciding to launch the public fundraiser, Takia McClendon said that the hospital system serves a community that has some of the highest rates of positive coronavirus tests in Philadelphia.
"We know that this outbreak has had an economic impact on millions of Americans, but if you have the means to do so, consider supporting Einstein Hospital — a hospital in Philadelphia's Olney neighborhood where over 40 percent of people who get tested for coronavirus have positive results," Ms. McClendon wrote on her fundraising page.
"I'm inspired by the work of our front-line caregivers and wanted to support them by raising money as part of my participation in COVID-19 crisis response," Ms. McClendon added.
Read the full report here.