Closures and service disruptions related to the COVID-19 outbreak are causing financial hardship across the healthcare industry, affecting anesthesia groups, spine and orthopedic practices, device companies, and surgery centers.
In roughly the past month, sister publications Becker's ASC Review and Becker's Spine Review have reported on six mass layoffs and furloughs stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic:
1. New England Orthopedic Surgeons in Springfield, Mass., is furloughing more than half its workforce, according to a March 23 report.
2. Boise (Idaho) Anesthesia Physician Associates laid off 53 employees, and the practice's physician owners stopped taking paychecks.
3. Bedford (N.H.) Ambulatory Surgical Center CEO Nick Vailas said his surgery center has lost about 80 percent of its business due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the lost revenue, the ASC laid off an unspecified number of employees, cut pay to other employees and closed one of its offices.
4. Orthopedic implant maker Exactech laid off 54 employees at its Gainesville, Fla., headquarters and nine at its Sarasota, Fla., office, because of a rash of surgery cancellations amid the COVID-19 crisis.
5. Conformis furloughed about 80 employees and "substantially" all of its temporary workforce, effective March 23. The company's core hip and knee surgery products have been affected "in unprecedented ways" by the pandemic, President and CEO Mark Augusti said.
6. Medicrea's employees in France and Belgium — where elective surgery postponements have been in effect since March 12 and March 16, respectively — have been on partial unemployment since March 16, with government-sponsored salaries. The spinal device company has 180 employees worldwide; 40 are in the U.S.