Mohawk Valley Health System President and CEO Darlene Stromstad warned in a memo July 27 that employees will face layoffs and more furloughs as the system grapples with pandemic losses, according to The Times Telegram.
Despite receiving $30 million in pandemic aid, the health system continues to lose money because it is seeing fewer patients and is spending more money to get protective gear for staff, according to the memo.
Even if the Mohawk Valley Health is able to get back to 85 percent of the number of patients it had before the pandemic, it would lose about $86 million per year, Ms. Stromstad wrote.
"Clearly this is not sustainable," Ms. Stromstad wrote in the memo, according to the Telegram.
To help offset the losses, the health system plans layoffs, furloughs, consolidated services and new staff schedules, according to the memo.
As part of the plan, the system's Faxton urgent care center will close at the end of August.
The health system already has frozen hiring and cut discretionary spending. It announced in April a plan to furlough 20 percent of its workforce, about 800 workers.
Although the furloughs helped shore up finances in the short term, they weren't enough for the long term, Ms. Stromstad wrote.