Lifespan offering voluntary early retirement to eligible employees

Financial challenges exacerbated by COVID-19

PROVIDENCE, R.I (WLNE) – While their financial challenges began before the virus outbreak, Lifespan is reminded by recent events involving COVID-19, how essential their medical staff and health care providers provide for the community.

President and CEO of Lifespan, Timothy J. Babineau, said Lifespan’s viability as a community asset requires financial stability to ensure they can continue as the state’s largest and most important healthcare system.

As part of Lifespan’s restructuring strategy, they are offering a Voluntary Early Retirement Program (VERP) for any eligible employees, and of the 400 employees eligible. 216 elected to participate.

These employees will retire on March 28.

According to Babineau, in addition to the voluntary retirements, further position reductions will be needed to achieve financial stability.

“We greatly value the contributions of all our staff and deeply regret the need for any job loss. Our first instinct is always to protect our workforce, particularly our frontline employees,” said Babineau.

According to Babineau, Lifespan-partnering with their colleagues from A&M- are currently evaluating all aspects of their organization and working to identify opportunities to become more efficient while prioritizing patient care.

Initial staff reduction efforts began with the elimination of 87 positions, 55 of them being filled, 24 were vacant and 8 were corporate positions: approximately 5% of the corporate workforce.

These restructuring efforts will continue systemwide throughout 2020.

ABC6 reached out to Lifespan for further comment but they were not available at this time.

©WLNE-TV/ABC6 2020