Staff reductions, operational reviews help hospitals avoid recession downturn

While most hospitals nationwide fell victim in one way or another to the recent recession, facilities in Fairfield, Conn., seem to have found the magic elixir to avoiding such trouble. A combination of staff reductions and detailed operations reviews helped the hospitals "make ends meet," according to Leslie Gianelli of the Connecticut Hospital Association. 

For example, Greenwich Hospital last year cut a total of 51 employees and 181 positions, chief financial officer Gene Coluccio said, after dropping a large number of in-patient and out-patient programs. Stamford Hospital, on the other hand, teamed up with private, nonprofit clinic Optimus Health Care to contain uncompensated care costs, the News-Times reports. As such, Greenwich closed out the 2009 fiscal year by raking in profits of more than $10 million. Stamford's projected income was $25 million. 

Overall, slightly more than half of the 30 acute-care hospitals in Connecticut ended 2008 in deficit. 

"Hospitals have really cut expenses to the bone with staff reductions and every operation has been under review," Gianelli said. "The hospitals were so terribly hard hit by the recession." 

For more information:
- read this News-Times article