CHARLESTON, W.Va. — One of the state’s largest health care providers is making plans to begin re-offering elective procedures which ended more than a month ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) and all other hospitals in the state can begin submitting their plans for approval to the state Department of Health and Human Resources next Monday.
In a Friday letter to CAMC’s nearly 8,000 workers, CAMC President and CEO David Ramsey said the goal is to reopen with certain procedures in the next week but it will take a while to return to normal levels.
“Even though we would like to get back to our original volumes, we know we will have to work differently (social distancing, preserving of PPE, etc), so it will take time,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey is asking CAMC employees to make additional sacrifices. He said patient volumes are beginning to increase but the slowdown of the last five weeks has been significant.
Ramsey said CAMC is delaying the 3 percent marketplace raise planned for employees in May. It’s been moved to September, Ramsey said.
“Trust me–I want everyone to receive their adjustment. But we have to weigh all factor related to our financial position,” Ramsey wrote.
Beginning June 1, CAMC will temporarily eliminate its match of employees’ 401k contributions until Dec. 31. Ramsey said the match will be reinstated before then if the situation improves.
“Making these additional changes will hopefully put us in a position of not making further permanent reductions to our workforce,” Ramsey said.
Many CAMC workers have already had their work hours reduced and taken paid time off.