Work underway to draw up next year’s hospital budget

Kingston General Hospital recently passed the half-way mark in the fiscal year and is right on target to finish with a balanced budget. Next up is planning for the upcoming 2014-15 fiscal year and once again the hospital will be relying on all staff to help with the search for savings.

The provincial government has already said it will hold the line on hospital spending, meaning hospitals won’t be getting any additional funding for current activity next year.

Meanwhile, at KGH we are projecting our inflationary costs to rise by about two per cent. We also have some new structural changes to fund, and remain committed to investing between $16 million and $20 million into capital equipment and technology. It all adds up to a projected funding gap that at the moment is estimated to be between $9 and $15 million.

"This year’s budgeting process is very similar to what we’ve been through over the previous five years," says J'Neene Coghlan, Chief Financial Officer. "We need to find significant savings across the organization while making sure we are not affecting our ability to deliver excellent patient care."

To this end, the Operations Committee, which oversees hospital finances, is busy formulating an approach to help us achieve another balanced budget in 2014-15. As part of this work, it will be working with people across the hospital to find best savings.

"There has been a lot of hard work across the organization and thanks to such initiatives as our ongoing continuous improvement program, we are in a good position to tackle next year’s planning," she says.

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