Revenue Decline Forces Cutbacks at Elbert Memorial Hospital

A rough last couple of months financially have caused Elbert Memorial Hospital to make some significant cuts to expenses.

Elbert Memorial Chief Executive Officer Jim Yarborough said it’s a culmination of things that have contributed to the last few months.

“It’s a combination of things, it’s like the perfect storm against us”, said Yarborough. “This time of year there is a downturn in our volumes, and when our productivity is down, so is our revenue.”

The hospital suffered an operating loss in June of $182,000; followed by a loss of $121,000 in July.

Yarborough said one thing they are doing right now is trying to cut back on the amount of hours of both full time and part time staff at Elbert Memorial.

“The assumption is, if the number of admissions, patient days, or lab procedures are down, there’s also an assumption if you are doing less paid work, then you need less paid hours”, explained Yarborough. “This led us to make the decision we did.”

The reduction is being done across the board, as to not have to lay any employees off.

Salaries and personnel costs make up 63% of all the hospital’s expenses said Yarborough.  He said he’s hopeful that the reduction in hours is only a temporary solution.

“Its our sincere hope that as the season changes, school is just started, that there are going to be more patient needs in the coming months”, said Yarborough. “When that happens our workload will go up, and we can get our staff back to their full hours and resume normalcy at Elbert Memorial.”

Hours for full-time employees will be reduced by eight hours each two week pay period, and hours for part-time employees will be reduced 10% until the financial picture changes.