Florida Department of Health creates resource pool to hire more health care workers

FLORIDA — As the coronavirus pandemic ramps up, health care professionals at small and rural hospitals are getting furloughed, laid off or reassigned.

Due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mayo Clinic has announced they will be furloughing employees and making salary reductions after April 28, according to a spokesperson with the medical facility.

The Florida Department of Health created a job poll to help out-of-work health care professionals find employment with other facilities in need of workers.

The Department of Health established a mechanism for health care workers who are unemployed, furloughed or interested in volunteering to provide health to areas impacted by COVID-19.

Workers can register in a resource pool that can be called upon when hospitals or long-term facilities need assistance.

Action News Jax spoke to the medical director of Family Care Partners, Dr, Randy Warren, who said their company is looking to hire because of high demand.

“Out of our total of 300 some in the company, we have about 57 employees that are on active monitoring right now and can’t work from home,” Dr. Warren said.

Family Care Partners has four large divisions in Northeast Florida, mostly in Jacksonville. They said they will not furlough or let go on employees during the pandemic. Actually, they said they are looking to hire workers to help answer calls in their contact center.

“The contact center has been hit particularly hard,” Dr. Warren said. “From the 15 employees we have in the contact center before, we’re down to three today. So, you can imagine how difficult it can be to answer phones and we want to answer phones for our patients.”

After the State loosens restrictions for telehealth, Family Care Partners started at least have of their staff on it. Other employees who can sew have volunteered to make cloth face masks for their medical community.