Baylor Scott & White announced Tuesday it plans to layoff almost 3% of its workforce becaue of the financial impact of COVID-19. That equals roughly 1,200 people.

There is no word at this time how those layoffs will affect hospitals and medical centers in Central Texas.

According to several media reports, Baylor CEO Jim Hinton made the announcement during a video message to employees Tuesday.

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Hinton talked about the reasoning behind the layoffs, saying: “We experienced a dramatic drop in patient volumes — between 50 and 90%…we’ll need those [employees] back as the volume [of patients] comes back.”

Along with the layoffs, Hinton said more employees would be subject to furloughs, open positions will not be filled, and about 300 senior leaders will have their salaries cut.

FOX44 News reached out to Baylor Scott & White Health for comment, and received the following statement:

Throughout the course of the pandemic, our focus has been on the safety and well-being of our patients and team members.  Early on, we made the decision to protect the pay of all employees through the end of May, and we recently extended that through June 7^th.  We worked to reassure and safeguard our people through the uncertainty as we prepared for a potential surge of COVID-19 patients, yet experienced a drastic drop in visits, largely due to the suspension of non-urgent surgeries and procedures. 

Now, as early data is revealing the significant economic implications of the pandemic on Texans and the operational and financial implications on our health system, we are implementing changes to remain prepared and able to adapt in continued unpredictability. 

These changes include temporary salary reductions of senior executives, modified physician compensation models, flexing and furloughing of employees to accommodate changing volumes, and a reduction of our workforce of around 3%. While designed to better match our resources with evolving community needs, any decisions to part with our people are always very difficult. We are committed to supporting these team members’ transitions in every way possible.

Other changes were announced to employees today as part of a comprehensive plan to strengthen our organization for the future, including growing digital offerings and further investing in team members on the frontlines.

Tuesday’s announcement comes as the number of people killed by COVID-19 in the U.S. approaches 100,000 and the number of unemployed stands at 39 million.