Hospital Sisters Health Systems Calling Back Majority Of, But Not All, Furloughed Workers

Hospital Sisters Health System, which operates St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital in Effingham, has announced plans to reduce approximately 10% of its workforce at HSHS operations in Illinois and Wisconsin. The majority of the reductions will be realized by not recalling certain workers furloughed earlier this year.

A statement from HSHS indicates, "Earlier this year, the pandemic shifted how patients preferred or were allowed to use their local healthcare services, and HSHS saw a significant decline in the number of patients coming to our facilities. That led to negative financial impacts, and we had to make changes to our workforce including furloughs and executive pay reductions. Now that we are able to offer elective procedures again, we're seeing a rebound in the number of patients coming to us for care, and we are pleased to announce we are inviting back the majority of colleagues that had been placed on furlough a few months ago."

The statement continues, "However, we are unable to bring back all of these furloughed colleagues. In order to provide the best chance for a strong, stable future for HSHS through and after this unpredictable pandemic, we have made the difficult decision to reduce approximately 10% of our workforce in Illinois and Wisconsin."

The statement indicates the majority of the colleagues not returning are "non-clinical". 

Hospital Sisters Health System has 15 hospitals between Illinois and Wisconsin and also owns two Illinois-based physician groups: Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants and HSHS Medical Group.