You pretty much know as soon as someone says, "I'm not a racist, but..." that they're going to say something completely racist. As soon as your boyfriend begins 'a talk' by telling you how great you are, you can count on being dumped by the end of it.
Similarly, when a CEO talks about how much they value their employees, you just know cuts are coming. And so it happened today at Collingwood's hospital. Five of the facility's highly valued nursing jobs are being eliminated.
The reason: the scourge of underfunding. It's a very prevalent and troublesome problem, especially in taxpayer-funded organisations like hospitals and schools, and in recent years, it has been a real challenge. (although there is a lot of talk about solutions, no one in taxpayer-funded agencies has problems anymore; they have challenges)
More of us need to talk to our lenders and employers about solutions for our underfunding. "I'm not in debt-I'm underfunded!"
The hospital says it was underfunded to the tune of 400-thousand dollars last year. The 'solution' to the 'challenge' which will be cuts to front-line nursing jobs, along with cuts to operating room time (more nursing jobs) and cuts to hours for clerks.
By the way, the CEO received a 20 percent raise last year. In dollar terms, that's a raise of 38 thousand dollars from 2008 to 2009. She's now paid 227-thousand of your tax dollars. I don't imagine she faces any challenges with personal underfunding, not like the nurses or clerks will.
---Full disclosure: I was an employee of the hospital in Collingwood for three years, from 2003 to 2006, spending much of that time wordsmithing for at least three CEOs, including the one who currently holds the job. My most commonly offered advice was, "Make decisions that are defensible. Then defend them." The position I held was eliminated in 2006, although I believe there is someone working there now with the same title.
I think that if Linda Davis is making that much money then she's a pretty smart cookie...someone that should be running the hospital. Sounds like she's great at contract negotiation.
ReplyDeleteWill you feel that way when your mother has lain in dirty sheets for seven hours because there is not enought staff to care for her?
ReplyDeleteAt the board meeting they said that the debt was contributed by Dr Engel and her legal fees. This was just a diversion to keep the public from knowing what they really spent their money on. It is said that some of the sunshine money Linda Davis was alloted was for vacation not taken..wow..I want to be on that vacation. It times of no replacement of staff at overtime money, layoffs and the bottom line suffering to try to maintain some type of patient safety it is appalling that Linda Davis gets to site this as her main goal for the G& M. Don't even try to tell us this..because we don't buy it!
ReplyDeleteDoes the hospital really pay the legal fees for the doctors? It seems to me that they should take care of this through insurance. How nice of the hospital to provide this service to Dr Engel. How much did that cost me? I should have bought the bridge.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someone should look into how many managers are in the hospital. Seems to me that for a 72 bed hospital Linda Davis is paid too much and she has employed so many managers/supervisors that it leaves little money for the day to day services to be delivered.
ReplyDeleteAB thinks something is amiss in the hospital at Collingwood. Seems the top-heavy adminstration (with their hefty pay cheques) is cracking open the foundation of the hospital...the nurses and front line workers who provide the care hospitals are in the business to provide. What gives? A 38% increase for the CEO and layoffs of nurses. How can the HR and administarors defend this? Seems what is needed is full disclosure and far more public transparency so that we the taxpayers can better understand why staff are being cut in an area of a growing and aging population.
ReplyDeleteCare is what the hospital should be providing, not cutting.
AB apologizes...Meant a 20% increase for the CEO...uhmmmm when inflation rate is only 2%.
ReplyDeletesounds like g&m is way to top heavy maybe lay off some pencil pushers before it topples. Whats good for the goose is good for the gander.
ReplyDeleteThe foundation is beginning to fund raise for a new project..is it going to be all buildings because the RN's will be in the USA again, job seeking. oh yeah..I guess there is always unregulated care givers.
ReplyDeleteCutting nursing jobs is simply ridiculous..
ReplyDeleteThe area we live in just keeps growing, and with more seniors..It does not make sense.
$227,000.00 a year.. hey let me try and manage 72 beds.. With the cuts, and unregulated care givers,its an accident waiting to happen.. Hope its not with any one in my family... There should be one CEO for Collingwood, Meaford and Owen Sound....
If L Davis worked in the private sector as opposed to the public sector she woustockholders would not put up with poor management.She would have been fired. Management has a saying do more with less. So management lets start doing a lot more with less of you.
ReplyDeleteHospitals were established to provide nursing care. Why are we cutting nursing jobs and asking surgeons to reduce their operating room time? Shouldn't we be cutting administration jobs and reducing 'meeting days' ?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the hospital board approve these administative wage increases? - what's going on? How can this be ?
ReplyDeleteI understood the Collingwood hospital was undergoing an expansion. Once completed , where will you find the professionals to care for the patients in a larger facility? Will they still be around? Will you have the means to pay them then ,if you can't afford to keep these valuable professionals now ?
I am a frequent visitor to this beautiful town,and plan to retire here in the near future.
I hope the residents of Collingwood, Wasaga Beach and surrounding areas ,that count on this hospital ,will waken to this insanity .
Their is a solution to the hospital deficit ands its not cutting nursing staff......
ReplyDeleteLets give layoff notice to the two nursing managers of the medical and surgical units. These jobs are day time 8-4pm 5 days a week. The minimum savings is in the order of $150,000 plus.
Each floor could have a shift charge nurse. They are experienced enough to make the decisions required. They could report to the Director of nursing.
This would little or no impact on the Directors job either.
The night supervisors position is a questionable as well.
Lets remember Linda Davis is not entirely to blame, she like all of us wants more money... Lets put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Hospital trustees. They voted the raise.
If the hospital is in a deficit position in 2009, how on earth does the CEO warrant a pay increase of 4% based on performance. Clearly the hospital is poorly managed and yet our top heavy administrative staff have their hand out for "performance based" salary increases. If the hospital were a restaurant, the waiters would expect a tip for dropping your food in your lap. Quit cutting staff that directly deal with our patients - clerks, security, nursing - and look harder at cutting administrative roles and overlaps in duties. Lets get back to grass roots of serving the public. Enough meetings and more patient care. Sometimes you have to stop focusing on the analysis of what we do .... and you have to "just do".
ReplyDeleteHow about outsourcing Finance and HR to a larger hospital. It is time to amalgamate the administrative staff with a larger center for real cost effeciency. Why lay off RN's when the labour market is screaming for nurses to join the field or not retire? I feel very badly for the front line staff of this hospital...the culture must be negative and diffcult to work in.
ReplyDeleteMaybe its time for the ministry of health to conduct a review of the hospital management similar to that which was conducted years ago resulting in the appointment of Linda Davis. Seems to me to be much of the same problems. We need to start to look a little deeper. There are lots of ways to trim the FAT in this facility
ReplyDeleteHow much of this deficit is due to overtime wages being paid I recall reading about a couple of the nursing staff and a tech being paid $100.000. Thats insane. Ita obvious something is wrong Laying off staff cutting hours and then paying overtime.
ReplyDeleteAll of these comments are so ridiculous. Not one of you have your facts straight and it seems as though no one has bothered to do the research or ask questions. Reading above, I see conjecture, speculation, a regugitation of incorrectly reported conjecture, a reference to the local print media suggesting that they are somehow an authority on the matter.
ReplyDeleteEveryone in my family has been to the G&M at least once. Stop bitching and start appreciating.
Please read the "Hosital Officials Defend Nursing Cutbacks" posted by Shawn Giilck of the" Enterprise Bulletin " posted August 7th.
ReplyDeleteA hospital administative official- Steve Soychuk, verifies himself what is, and has been taking place in our local hospital.
L. Davis HAS had a 5% raise ,no matter how you break it down! There WILL be a loss of 5 full-time nursing positions either by layoff attrition or retirement.
I wouldn't call this "bitching", I would call this deeply concerning.
I think Mr. Soychuk is mistaken when he is quoted as saying that "the layoffs haven't created much upset internally".If he thinks that we aren't upset then the managers/administrators really don't know the people they are managing!, and, I believe they don't know what is required to provide the best and safest care for such a rapidly growing and transient population.
Ignorance is bliss. Like an iceberg, the most dangerous part is what you don't see, and that is 80% of the problem. The G&M hospital board needs to look deeper, question more and provide the leadership our community deserves, rather than rubber stamping the direction the administration takes. The problems of our community hospital run far deeper than what the media has exposed, and it is a growing credit to the front line staff that the public does not feel more of those issues first hand. They deserve congratulations and not "pink slips".
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Board member and new warden Cal will be giving out the same amount of "simcoe money" to the other hospitals in the county? Or just the one that happened to make a huge mistake in cutting down a forest and then having to pay to remediate the problem. Lucky money couldn't have come along sooner for a CEO with magic horseshoes or well appointed board members. La Davis escapes another botched plan that cost major dollars for the taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteThe context: operating base funding
ReplyDeleteFor the most-recent years available, according to hospital accountability service agreements, except for Southlake (audited financials 2008) and for the newly created Georgian Bay General Hospital, which has not yet posted its accountability agreement.
RVH: $140 million
Orillia: $95.5 million
Collingwood General: $28 million
Guelph: $82.9 million
Quinte (Belleville): $114 million
Southlake: $263 million
2005:
RVH: $156,343 salary, plus $7,650 benefits
Orillia: $163,104, plus $800 benefits
Huronia District Hospital (Midland) $132,718, plus $55 benefits
Penetanguishene: $120,036, plus $471
Guelph: $240,480, plus $841
Quinte (Belleville): $207,692, plus $15,768 benefits
Southlake: $315,242, plus $53,555
* no entry for Collingwood General and Marine Hospital
2006:
RVH: $257,124, plus $12,762 benefits
Orillia: $165,731, plus $526 benefits
HDH: $137,389 plus $310 in benefits
PGH: $127,981, plus $373
Collingwood: $154,882, plus $543
Guelph: $255,266, plus $1,039
Quinte: $225,711, plus $8,616
Southlake: $$356,005, plus $77,347
2007:
RVH: $275,008, plus $12,638
Orillia: $269,692, plus $1,334
HDH: no entry
PGH: $171,647, plus $451
Collingwood: $180,393, plus $451
Guelph: $278,321, plus $1,136
Quinte: $244,499, plus $1,574
Southlake: $397,500, plus $61,746
2008:
RVH: $275,008, plus $12,594
Orillia: $268,117, plus $913
HDH: no entry
PGH: two entries totaling $284,518, and $556 in benefits
Collingwood: $180,393, plus $448
Guelph: $287,321, plus $1,181
Quinte: $254,342, plus $1,682
Southlake: $423,750, plus $102,703
2009:
RVH: $277,229, plus $19,526
Orillia: $192,740, plus $941
HDH: no CEO salary reported
PGH: $135,804, plus no benefits
Collingwood: $189,220, plus $558
Guelph: $295,827, plus $1,223
Quinte: $263,213, plus $1,741
Southlake: $467,960, plus $206,228
2010:
RVH: $285,540, plus $39,236
Orillia: $270,002, plus $1,240
Georgian Bay General (HDH+PGH): $104,003, plus $201
Collingwood: $227,140, plus $6,688
Guelph: $298,369, plus $1,093
Quinte: $265,668 plus 1,573
Southlake: $474,999, plus $310,285
Source: Ontario Ministry of Finance, salary disclosure. Year refers to income and benefits paid the previous year; ie. 2010 numbers indicate earnings in 2009.
Why we chose the comparators we did: Quinte Health Care is located in Belleville, a regional centre outside the GTA. Guelph is a non-GTA city of similar size to Barrie. Orillia is Barrie’s nearest neighbour and experiences a similar cost of living. Southlake Regional Health Centre is located in Newmarket, just inside the GTA and operates six regional programs including cardiac, cancer and thoracic specialties.
there has been a major increase in salary for the ceo of collingwood from 2006 to the present...I guess the LINN is working for ...? it is time for our small community to demand that those people stop directing our money into their own pockets. Did they think no one was watching? Ms Davis..you are responsible and are going to be held accountable.
ReplyDeleteWell the hospital just keeps cutting not administrative positions you think. NO now its security staff safety is not a priority. But moving into their new surroundings is of course. And to boot a far better HVAC system than the main hospital building. Now the hospital has contracted with a private security company. Much like it was several years ago when they had a patient under their care leave and was foun dead nearby frozen. The hospital security staff always made us feel safe and were respected but we saved money or did we.
ReplyDelete