Duane Hicks
After being named this week as one of 61 Ontario public hospitals that ran a deficit in 2008, the CEO of Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc. said the $950,191 shortfall was a one-time occurrence and that Riverside is on track to break even in 2009.
“Things are looking a lot better this year mainly because most of those expenses last year were one-time expenses we had to absorb that year,” Wayne Woods noted yesterday afternoon.
“There were a lot of legal fees, for the CT scanner and that,” he remarked. “We had to absorb some stuff, and we decided to do it last year.
“I can’t divulge what they [the legal fees] were for, just that we had significant legal fees.”
But Woods said “things are not bad this year.”
“Essentially, right now we are looking at a break even [year],” he said.
Ontario hospitals receive about 85 percent of their funding from the province through 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), and by law are not allowed to run deficits.
But they were given a special exception last year if they agreed to get their houses in order this year.
“What you have to do is explain to the LHIN and show them why you created a deficit, and reasonably assure them that it won’t continue,” Woods explained.
As reported by the Canadian Press yesterday, more than one-third of Ontario hospitals (61 of 159) couldn’t balance their books last year, amounting to a $154-million shortfall overall.
One of the reasons cited in the article was “the economic downturn and its effect on donations and other non-government source of revenues,” which Woods agreed was a factor.
“We have investments and those investments are not generating any income this year,” he noted. “The whole economy hurt us, too.”
The largest shortfalls included Niagara Health System, which had an $18.8-million deficit, Kingston General Hospital ($14 million), Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children ($12.8 million), and Sault Area hospital ($11.5 million), according to figures provided to The Canadian Press.
In the four most northern regions of the province, 20 hospitals were in deficit at the end of the year, the article stated.
In related news, Woods confirmed the problem of not being able to use the CT scanner after-hours and on weekends at La Verendrye Hospital was rectified this spring after Riverside signed a deal with Canadian Teleradiology Services, which electronically receives CT scans done here and then transmits them to approved, certified radiologists elsewhere.
“Things are great,” enthused Woods. “It’s pretty well usable 24/7.
“We try not to, because we have to call staff in, but as far as the interpretations from the radiologists, they’re excellent, they’re timely, and there’s absolutely no problems there.”
Prior to the agreement, CT scans conducted here were viewed by a remote radiologist, usually in Thunder Bay.
However, after-hours coverage was difficult because there would be no radiologist working in Thunder Bay during that time of day.
Consequently, patients needing emergency CT scans were sent to Falls Memorial Hospital over in International Falls.
Woods previously noted La Verendrye doesn’t warrant having a radiologist on-site because there’s not enough volume to support their activities.
