Lee Health, a system with more than 14,500 employees in Fort Myers, Fla., is offering voluntary buyouts and a summer leave program to help offset losses attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to ABC-7.
With the voluntary buyout, employees would terminate their employment with Lee Health and receive a severance payout.
Employees are also being offered summer sabbaticals, which are four to six weeks off from work during the summer. Employees who opt into the summer leave program can use vacation time if they have it or it will be unpaid.
Lee Health said that its admission and surgery volumes have been cut in half due to the pandemic. Earlier this month it said it was projecting an $85 million loss for March and April, according to WINK News.
"We have taken steps to reduce nonessential operating expenses, but the magnitude of COVID-19's impact on our health system requires us to take action to align our staffing with the volume of patients we are seeing today and in the coming future," Larry Antonucci, Lee Health president and CEO, told WINK.