When the clinic operated by the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine separates from the university on July 1, its 88 non-physician employees will have tough decisions to make.
The privatization will force officials to restaff the clinic, but the current university employees will not be sent immediately to the unemployment lines. The staff of the privatized clinic will include mostly current employees, and those not rehired can be guaranteed a position with the university for at least another year, said Jack Brose, dean of OU-COM.
"People think that come June 30, clinic employees will be sitting on the streets, and that's not the case," he said.
Both the university and OU Osteopathic Medical Center Inc. — the corporation operating the clinic — employ the approximately 45 doctors who work at the facility. But the university is the sole employer of the additional 88 people who work as administrators, receptionists, nurses or technicians, said Anita Kochis, director of OU-COM Human Resources.
When the clinic goes private, Medical Center Inc., a for-profit corporation, will become University Medical Association, a non-profit corporation that will employ all of the clinic's new workers, instead of just the doctors.
Steve Swart, chief financial officer for the clinic, said privatization will increase efficiency because the clinic will no longer be held to university regulations governing hours and practice methods.
Salaries, benefits and retirement packages for the employees of the private clinic have not been finalized yet, Swart said. Although no longer affiliated with the university, former clinic employees and their families still will be eligible for tuition waivers.
Brose said those not rehired have several options.
Employees can participate in an extended employment group. OU-COM officials created it to guarantee former clinic employees a job in either the university or the clinic for one year while they look for another job.
But the extended employment group is looking the least attractive to clinic workers because of OU's current hiring freeze, Brose said. Those who choose that option will be placed into a holding pool. They can apply for permanent positions when they become available in the university. After their one-year period of extended employment, the freeze would have to be lifted for those remaining in the holding pool to be hired permanently.
Some employees may be able to return to their former jobs if the jobs remain unfilled after two years. Those employees may not participate in the group, but can apply for unemployment compensation.
And employees who choose not to partake in either job option can take a severance package, which terminates their relationship with the university, although he or she retains the tuition waiver for another year.
The severance package for administrators will include a one-time lump sum payment of their six-month salary, but the details of a package for non-administrators have not been finalized. The university also will offer the severance package option to employees who will leave the university but stay with the clinic when it goes private.
A fourth option is available to clerical employees not hired by the clinic. Those clerical workers can take a job held by another employee in another university department, provided that the worker holding that job has less seniority. Those displaced employees can continue to move down through the ranks until the university's newest hire ends up in an extended employment group, according to the Classified Senate Web site (www.ohiou.edu/csen).
Kochis said she has met with approximately three-quarters of the staff to determine whether they will return to the privatized clinic next year.
"I've seen every stage of grief (in the employees) from denial to anger, frustration and acceptance," Kochis said. "Because these are very individualized situations, people's choices are across the board."
For example, some licensed practical nurses plan to accept the severance package and go back to school to become registered nurses, she said.
Kathy White was a patient service representative in OU-COM until last Friday when she became the new administrative assistant in the Honors Tutorial College. HTC requested that an employee of the clinic fill the vacancy.
"It was not totally out of the question to stay with the clinic," she said, "but there haven't been any offers or set salaries yet. There was job uncertainty, and I have to have a position."
Swart said he expects employees who terminate their jobs with the clinic to stay with the university. When the clinic opened in 1978, one year after the creation of the medical school, 126 university employees worked there. Although that number has been reduced to 88, many of the people who left the clinic remained with OU in other positions.
Many employees are waiting for a definite retirement plan before deciding whether to reapply for a clinic job, Brose said. The Ohio Public Employee Retirement System, where university employees have built up retirement time, will review retirement packages to see whether experience and plans will transfer to the University Medical Association. After the packages have been determined, the clinic will have a better idea of how many employees will work for the privatized clinic.
"In my opinion a good number will make the shift," Brose said. "Our staff has been wonderful and remarkable. They've stuck with us and are truly professionals."
But jobs are not completely guaranteed for those wishing to make the change to the private clinic. The clinic already has begun to accept applications for vacant positions and must review all applications without bias, Swart said.
"Legally, we cannot give preference to our current employees. We know the people we have are very good and outstanding. Those are the types of employees we're looking for and fortunately we know where to find them," he said.
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