Hospital deficit nears $7 million

Author: Frank Matys

Date: Feb 05, 2010

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Officials at Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital say they are in the dark as to how much funding the facility will get from the province this year.

ORILLIA - Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital is on target to close out its fiscal year with a $6.9 million shortfall.
The anticipated deficit would have been higher had the hospital not launched a three-year “recovery” plan approved by the board in 2009, said president and CEO Elisabeth Riley.
Unknown is the hospital’s financial situation for the coming year, though inflationary pressures are expected to push up costs by three to five per cent.
“Just to maintain the services we have, we need that amount of money,” Riley said this week.
However, the province has yet to announce funding for the coming year, meaning hospitals are left to plan “in the dark,” at least until the government releases those figures.
“The hospitals haven’t been told what their revenues will be from the government this year,” she said, adding that, “it is making it quite hard for us.”
Riley in a presentation to Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop outlined a range of challenges facing the local facility, including an abundance of so-called “alternate-level-of-care patients” staying at the hospital.
Those patients, who occupy hospital beds due to a shortage of long-term care spaces in the community, number between 40 and 50 at any given time.
“It is an increasing pressure,” Riley said.
Provincial support for more nurse practitioners and local physician recruitment efforts would ease some of the burden on the hospital, and help it achieve a balanced budget, Riley said.
Adding to current financial pressures is the need to upgrade the hospital’s computer network, a measure estimated to cost as much as $25 million over five years.
The hospital board in 2009 said it was aiming to reach a balanced budget in three years.
“While we anticipate improved performance for 2010/2011, we know that we will end next year in a deficit again,” Riley added.
In some hospital departments, some positions were added while others were eliminated as part of a change to the so-called “skills mix,” one of numerous measures implemented to lower costs.
“The vast majority of those positions (that were eliminated), those individuals were able to transition into other positions in the hospital,” said spokesperson Terry Dyni.