Richardson says temporary pay cut could save hospital | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Beaufort County commissioner Hood Richardson wants to re-establish a 5-percent cut to labor at the Beaufort County Medical Center, similar to the short-lived cut of May 2009, which was reversed due to employee complaints, according to Richardson.

    Richardson, the county board’s liaison to the BCMC Board of Trustees, warned that the hospital will go bankrupt under its present operations, and specified some of his plans for cost-cutting measures at yesterday’s Beaufort County Board of Commissioners meeting. Of course, reaching an agreement among the hospital board for an unpopular pay cut is not going to be easy; but it may be BCMC’s only choice, short of merging the independent hospital with a larger medical center.

    “The management of the hospital does not want to adjust the labor cost at the hospital to the volume of patients that we have,” said Richardson.

    Richardson reminded his fellow commissioners and the public that a cut to payroll is still possible, however, even if BCMC merges.

    “I can tell you something—whoever gets that hospital is not going to keep losing money. They’re going to make some changes,” he said. “You have people of the hospital staff that are promising people that their job is secure if you will only support a merger with somebody else. Now, people really need to sit down and think about this stuff before they start climbing on board.”

    Richardson figured that a 5-percent cut to the hospital’s $27 million payroll would save BCMC roughly $1.35 million a year, which could be applied toward its $2 to $3 million yearly deficit. He said that the current practice of giving yearly raises didn’t make fiscal sense.

    “We’re giving a two-percent annual increase to employees at the hospital,” he said. “That’s been reinstated at a time when we can’t pay our bills.”

    Richardson said that though the hospital board had been fair with employees’ salaries, but had not been fair in helping them increase patient volume. He said that an increase in patient volume would negate the need for a reduction in labor.

    “We need a slogan that says ‘Use the Beaufort County hospital—help us keep our hospital,’” said Richardson. “If we can get our volume up in that hospital, we’re still ok.”

    During the meeting, Commissioner Al Klemm asked for the hospital board’s detailed, future marketing plan that will be used to increase patient volume.

    “I’ve heard marketing mentioned as a means to enhance the perception of the hospital and to increase patient flow at the hospital,” said Klemm. “What would this be and what would be the expected results?”

    Richardson said that a good place to begin would be to tell the public that if they want to save the hospital, they need to start using it.

    “One of the things that will help with the hospital immensely is if we can increase our volume of patients at the hospital,” he said. “You know, the hospital is giving very good care at the moment. So, we implore residents and citizens of Beaufort County to use the Beaufort County hospital.”

    Richardson said that the hospital board should ask the hospital employees to cooperate with a temporary pay cut to help save BCMC.

    “We just need to tighten it up a little bit…This is not a great disaster,” he said.