MIDDLETOWN — Garnet Health has gone through major changes lately, which includes laying off 49 employees – 25 of whom were in management. That has been one of the more major decisions that Jonathan Schiller has had to make since he was named Garnet Health’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President back in March. 

“The decision to reduce the workforce overall, obviously, was not taken lightly,” Schiller said. “[It] was delayed as long as we possibly could. In addition to that, we were as thoughtful, as compassionate and as generous as we could be.”

Schiller also said that if there is any silver lining to the workforce reduction, it’s that [Garnet] did not include any of its staff members on the front lines who are providing direct-to-patient care. 

“This really was, in some ways, a bit of a right sizing of some of the overhead or management function across the health system,” he said. “That was a direct response to some of our financial challenges.”

He noted that inflation has been one of the major financial challenges at the hospital, saying that when it hits like that, they don’t receive any extra reimbursement from their governmental payers. 

Schiller went on to talk about what the future holds for the healthcare organization, stating that they continue to recruit frontline staff and direct-to-care staff. He also mentioned that a couple years down the line, they may need to add back some of the management. 

Named as the new Vice President of Operations for Garnet Health and new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Garnet Health-Catskills back in June, Jerry Dunlavey also talked about the reasoning behind the workforce reduction. 

“When you’re in a growth phase, which is really where we were prior to the pandemic,” Dunlavey said, “you need that management staff. You really can’t survive or grow without the staff to help carry the ball forward. What we realized after 18 months of a very challenging financial environment, was that it became time to have to make that very difficult decision.”

Dunlavey reiterated Schiller’s point that it was the most thoughtful and empathetic process to make sure that they handled it the right way. 

Facing challenges

Both Schiller and Dunlavey talked about the nature of their industry and how it is certainly not immune to the financial struggles that other industries around the country have faced. 

“We are facing probably one of the most challenging economic environments in health care that we’ve seen in the past 50 years,” Dunlavey said. 

Schiller talked about the COVID-19 pandemic leading to a lot of challenges for the healthcare industry. The pandemic was a challenge in itself for everyone, but then in 2021, 35,000 people left the healthcare workforce in New York State. 

“[Those workers left] as a result of a variety of reasons,” Schiller said. “Including, obviously, COVID, and then the state’s vaccine mandate. So, in our area, we didn’t have any extra people.”

Schiller spoke on how they are a community hospital and that they are really an extension of the community. With all the workers leaving the industry and struggles faced, they had to rely on travel staff and travel nurses. But he said they want to try and move away from that, in order to have a more centralized staff who is more hands-on with their community. 

Importance of providing excellent health service

One of the most important aspects in working in the healthcare industry is being able to provide excellent health service. It’s not something Schiller and Dunlavey, or anyone in the industry for that matter, take lightly. They strive to do the best job that they can do.

“Members of our community don’t come here for a good chance at getting better,” Schiller said. “Community members come for a gap as close to a guarantee as possible that the services we’re going to provide [will] meet the objective healthcare needs that they’re coming in with.”

“We need to make sure that we are providing exceptional care,” Dunlavey said. “Not just in the life-saving and interventional work that we do, but by community involvement, by community outreach and by building the base of primary care so that folks can get access to healthcare early in their life. I believe that a healthy community is a productive community, and a productive community is one that ultimately becomes independent and self-sufficient.”

When asked what advice he would give to someone entering the healthcare field in any capacity, Schiller said he would tell them to never stop learning, as it is a dynamic and constantly evolving field. Second, he said to stick to their health system values - which he said are honesty, integrity, transparency and teamwork. 

Dunlavey had three pieces of advice to give to young people entering the health field. One was that you don’t have to be interested in clinical work to work in healthcare. He said that there are a variety of settings where one can work within the field. Second, he said to invest some time as a volunteer where you will get exposure to so many different aspects of healthcare. Third, he said to never think that once you make a decision that you are locked into having that one job over time. 

Schiller came back as the CEO for Garnet Health after a year’s absence where he was working in Central New York. He said he returned home in order to be closer to his immediate family. Schiller said the year away really made it apparent to him and his family that it would be better if he was back home full-time.