Physicians have donated $350,000 to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston to prevent planned staff layoffs.

The organization suffered a $20 million loss this month, reports The Boston Globe, and as a result planned 600 staff layoffs. Thirteen of the facility’s medical department heads announced they would donate the money to conserve coworkers’ jobs. In addition, they reached out to about 1,100 other physicians employed at the organization and in private practices associated with the organization for monetary contributions.

The facility’s Chief Executive, Paul Levy, has also reached out to staff to come up with cost-cutting initiatives, which combined with the physicians’ donation is expected to lower the amount of planned layoffs to 150.

The organization’s inpatient volume dropped about 1% during the current fiscal year which started in October 2008. The lower patient census is due to patients delaying elective surgeries and procedures requiring costly copayments, and an increasing number of people losing their healthcare coverage following job layoffs.

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