Wake Forest Baptist Health Plans Employee Furloughs, Executive Pay Cuts

Wake Forest Baptist Health is planning on furloughs for some leadership and administrative employees. There will also be temporary pay cuts for senior management.

Hospital employees were informed on Wednesday that the furloughs could begin next week or in early May. According to a memo sent to workers, the furlough period would last 16 weeks.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports that senior management and department chairs will take pay reductions of between 20 and 30 percent during this time.

Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag is the center's chief executive and medical school dean.

She says the hospital has taken additional cost-saving measures, including limiting business travel and non-essential expenses and releasing many contract and freelance workers.

Freischlag says that while Wake Forest Baptist is at the center of the response to the outbreak, many of its main sources of income have essentially stopped.

Vidant Health in eastern North Carolina has also announced furloughs, reduced salaries, and cuts to employee benefits at its hospitals because of the COVID-19 crisis.

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