St. Claire HealthCare (SCH) has responded aggressively and repositioned our clinical operations in the past weeks in response to the COVID-19 public health crisis. Thanks to the tireless work of many, logistics and clinical support are firmly in place to screen, identify, and treat patients with a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19 at St. Claire Regional Medical Center as well as SCH’s clinics, and home health and hospice practices.

While preparing for the predicted surge in COVID-19 patients, SCH has also taken action to keep its patients safe. All elective surgeries and screening diagnostic procedures, outpatient therapy services, sleep lab testing, aesthetics procedures, and more have been postponed until further notice. SCH has fully complied with CDC recommendations and mandates from Governor Andy Beshear aimed at reducing the spread of illness. And for our community, it seems to be working.

“We are grateful for the leadership and support of Gov. Beshear and his administration during this public health crisis. We fully support his timely and effective actions to protect our patients, staff, and the public,” said Donald H. Lloyd, II, SCH President/CEO. “However, we must manage the consequences of such directives in order to support our clinical operations and COVID-19 response.”

SCH has been forced to take immediate steps to proactively manage the operational impact of COVID-19. Over the past 10 days SCH has experienced a significant decline in patient visits at clinic locations, ambulatory and ancillary locations, and within our medical education operations. Sadly, those numbers are projected to get worse before they get better and no one ones know how long this pandemic will continue.

“We realize that our actions will have a tremendous impact on our staff and our community,” said Lloyd. “It’s not a decision we wanted to make nor do we take it lightly, but we have to take immediate action to ensure that we can sustain our clinical operations during and after the COVID-19 crisis ends.”

Beginning March 26, SCH will furlough 300 staff who are not directly involved in the delivery of care or participating in the COVID-19 response. This will affect approximately 25% of the existing workforce, with some remaining staff experiencing a reduction in worked hours until this crisis subsides.

“Our intent is for these furloughs to be temporary,” said Lloyd. “We hope to recall staff as quickly as possible, however, these are unprecedented times. We don’t know what the future holds or what recovery will look like.”

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