toh

January 30, 2013 – The Ottawa Hospital’s 2013-14 budget reflects a new era of hospital funding in Ontario, which is both an opportunity and a challenge. It’s an opportunity for The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) to look closely at how it delivers services in the most cost-effective way possible, while maintaining the highest standards of patient care and safety.

The budget is also a challenge because TOH, like most Ontario hospitals, is facing unprecedented demand from very ill patients for Emergency Department services and inpatient beds. These growth pressures are happening against the backdrop of increasing labour costs, an economy still in recovery, and provincial funding reforms focused on delivering high-quality health services for less cost.

More than ever, we must focus on our mandate to deliver world-class, specialized services that only TOH, and no other health-care institution in the Champlain health region, is uniquely able to provide.

“Our goal is to deliver high-quality care in the most efficient way,” said Dr. Jack Kitts, President and CEO. “To achieve our mandate of caring for the region’s most acutely ill and injured, we have to do some things differently.”

To achieve a balanced budget in 2013-14, TOH must reduce expenses by $31M on a total budget of $1.04B. The hospital has today notified its union partners of the following changes to TOH’s operations:

• A reduction in staff equivalent to about 290 full-time positions, from a total of 7,700 equivalent full-time positions, for a savings of nearly $22M; the remaining $9M in savings will come from increased revenue and reduced utilization and supply costs
• Of the 290 full-time equivalent positions affected, approximately 90 are in nursing, 100 are in administrative and support services, and 100 belong to other health professionals
• A commitment to redeploy as many employees affected as possible to the equivalent of 600 full-time positions that are currently vacant
• A concerted effort to minimize the net number of layoffs by offering early retirement to employees wherever possible

It’s important to note that a vast majority of the affected positions will not actually result in layoffs. Rather, they will trigger a process of restructuring that’s aimed at limiting the net number of layoffs. Because TOH has a history of maximizing efficiencies and minimizing involuntary departures, we are confident that these changes can be made in a timely and considered manner.

Media Contact:

Hazel Harding, Communications Advisor
The Ottawa Hospital
Email: hharding@toh.on.ca
Tel.: 613-737-8460