KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Saint Luke’s Health System will furlough a “limited number” of staff and cut salaries for senior officials as part of cost-saving measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A spokeswoman for the health system on Wednesday confirmed the furloughs would last 90 days. She did not provide an exact number of impacted employees.
In a statement, Saint Luke’s said it has had to implement other cost-saving measures, which include streamlining care and eliminating non-essential expenditures.
“We are also using this as an opportunity to innovate and reimagine how we provide care, increasing virtual visit opportunities and expanding telemedicine,” the statement read.
The health system said it experienced significant financial impacts because of the coronavirus. Like other hospitals in the metro, Saint Luke’s said it deferred procedures when possible early in the pandemic.
“Thankfully for Kansas City and our neighboring communities, the surge never reached the catastrophic levels we feared,” the Saint Luke’s statement said. “However, the financial impacts of these actions has been significant, not just to us, but to hospitals and health systems in Kansas City and across the nation.”
The health system, along with others in the metro, resumed elective procedures last month.
