UTICA, N.Y. – Mohawk Valley Health System will be laying off workers, extending furloughs, consolidating services and closing Faxton Urgent Care as part of its updated COVID-19 recovery plan.

President and CEO Darlene Stromstad announced the changes on Monday, July 27.

MVHS released an outline of its recovery plan in April, after announcing it would be furloughing 20% of its employees for the following four months.

Stromstad says the plan is not recouping lost revenue as quickly as MVHS had hoped. She says the hospital system is still operating at a loss of between $5 million and $7 million per month.

“The economic toll this pandemic has taken on healthcare facilities has been enormous. For MVHS, the federal relief funding and our four-month recovery plan stabilized our financial situation for the short-term but will not be enough to sustain us over the long-term,” said Stromstad.

MVHS is now focusing on a new recovery program.

“We are in the planning stages of a revenue recovery and restructuring program to realign services with changing community needs, right size the organization, redefine priority focus areas and have a strong, skilled workforce to serve our community,” she said.

The new restructuring plan also includes paying severances, extending and adding furloughs, as well as a hiring freeze.

“We are freezing open positions except for those that are deemed essential. It also extends the four-month recovery plan’s requirements for decreased discretionary spending and freezing nonessential capital expenditures,” said Stromstad.

Telehealth services at Faxton Urgent Care will still be available through Aug. 31.

Stromstad says MVHS has reached out to the unions for discussions, including the United Food & Commercial Workers and the Communications Workers of America.

More details on the new plan will be released over the next few weeks.