Another pay day has come and gone for employees at Fairfax Community Hospital -- but nothing's showing up in their bank accounts.
Today marks their third missed paycheck, but the doctors, nurses and physician assistants are still showing up for the patients who need them.
Thomas Engle has been a physician's assistant for six years at the Fairfax hospital.
With 60 employees, it's the largest employer in this small town and all stand ready to treat any patient who comes through the door.
“Gunshot wounds, motor vehicle accidents, coughs, sore throats heart attacks, strokes,” Engle said. “We see it all here."
One thing staff hasn't seen is a paycheck.
They were hoping it would come today, a week late, but nothing yet.
It's the third time the company out of Florida, which owns the hospital, has been delinquent in the last three months.
"Well, we're still waiting on a paycheck,” hospital administrator Linda Thompson said.
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While the staff is not being paid, they are still being charged for benefits that are no longer any good, like medical insurance and retirement accounts.
“They put that money away for retirement,” Engle said. “They need that money to survive on and they haven't deposited anything in people's 401ks since November… we had an employee here that had to resign because she had $120,000 in debt that our insurance policy didn't pay. Our [health savings accounts] aren't getting paid. I just got sent to collections for a dental bill."
The hospital employees here in Fairfax are hoping someone steps in and buys the facility, but they believe the current owner is preventing that from happening.
Fairfax city officials confirm they are trying to take over the hospital from the owners and come up with an investor of their own, but the company will not respond to their offers or to our phone calls.
Until something is decided, even without a paycheck staff here will keep wearing the t-shirts they had made to boost their morale and treating patients who need them daily -- “Together we stand #FCHstrong.”
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