What We Have Lost — and How We Will Move Forward
By Laura McQuade, President and CEO, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York
The past month has been one of the hardest our state has endured. So much, and so many, have been lost that we will never get back.
At Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, we know our patients, staff and communities are anxious, suffering, and experiencing this crisis in a range of areas in their lives. In the midst of this, we are doing what we can with the information and resources available to us to continue to provide care, and to make the best decisions for our patients and the organization’s future.
Unfortunately, that ultimately included making the incredibly difficult decision to reduce our staff.
This pandemic has put an incredible strain on PPGNY’s resources, as it has on hundreds of other nonprofits and health care organizations across New York. In an almost unprecedented economic moment, 16 million people have filed for unemployment in the U.S., including 810,000 in New York State. Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, the financial effects of this crisis could be catastrophic for PPGNY and ultimately for our patients. We couldn’t let that happen.
We said goodbye to many of our talented, passionate colleagues, in an already stressful and difficult time for our communities and state. We reduced our staff size by 28% through layoffs, furloughs and reduced hours. This has been one of the hardest and heaviest weeks for this organization, and we know it is far more difficult to those who have lost their jobs.
How did we get to this point? Throughout the past month, our incredible staff has continued to care for the people who need us. We have adapted, fast-tracked telehealth, and shifted resources to better serve our patients while also working to flatten the curve. We’ve also been working with local and state hospitals to treat patients who need essential sexual and reproductive health services.
These decisions were not taken lightly and only made under very careful consideration. We made this decision to get us through this challenging time and preserve the longer-term future of PPGNY after this pandemic recedes.
We are working to support those impacted, including covering COBRA through June, providing severance, and providing outplacement services. We are also in conversations with major health systems about connecting laid off and furloughed staff with hospitals to provide support during COVID-19.
We will also work fiercely to bring back furloughed staff as soon as we are stabilized. We know that no matter what we do, the burden will still be incredibly heavy for those impacted, especially during this pandemic.
We remain committed to our patients and our communities as we have been for more than 100 years.
We want to be clear that we are still here, and we will continue to be.
Our health centers are open. We have shifted our resources, including PPE, to our largest and most centrally located health centers. Seventeen centers remain open for abortion care and other essential in-person sexual and reproductive health services. PPGNY will begin to reopen the temporarily closed centers as the pandemic and risk of infection recedes.
We’ve shifted to telehealth. PPGNY has implemented telehealth to meet patients when and where they need us. Virtual services include birth control, medication abortion, emergency contraception, trans/nonbinary hormone therapy refills, STI screenings, and more. Since launching telehealth only weeks ago, PPGNY has scheduled more than 2,000 virtual visits.
Anyone can make an appointment online at www.ppgreaterny.org or by calling us at 1–800–230-PLAN.
Thank you for reading, and stay safe. Together we will rise from this crisis to rebuild a stronger, greater New York for everyone.
