Guelph General Hospital is saving a huge amount of money following renewed and new efforts to cut back on sick leave and overtime.
A recent report presented to the hospital board says the hospital has so far saved $1.14 million in salaries and wages over the previous year "primarily due to hospital-wide reductions in sick time and overtime over the prior year to date."
The report went on to say that there has been a 26 per cent reduction in paid sick hours over the previous year.
Rod Carroll, Guelph General's vice-president of human resources and resource management, said there are three reasons for the savings.
One was a rejuvenation of existing hospital protocols initiated last summer that makes staff more consistent when it comes to the process of reporting absences and following up on them.
"We have a support attendance program. We've always had one. What we did was renew and refresh that program," said Carroll in an interview.
Making sure employees were clear on when and how to report absences was another area that was focused on.
When it comes to new initiatives, Carroll pointed to a new Disability Management Committee, a weekly meeting of representatives from the hospital's employee health services, human resources, union presidents, and various department directors.
That committee reviews the status of employees who have been off for more than three days and works on "a plan on how to return them safely to work," Carroll explained.
"It's an important initiative that helps us contribute to our financial success," Carroll said.
Carroll said close to 80 per cent of the hospital's budget goes to wages and benefits.
"When we save on the sick time and overtime, it helps us in the bottom line in balancing our budget, which helps avoid reduction in staff.
"So if we can have a saving, that can go a long way to not having to go down the route of layoffs," Carroll said.
He added that the advantages of having staff return safely and quickly to work have two benefits.
"There's not just the monetary savings. There's direct costs (sick time payment and replacement costs), but then you have indirect costs, such as the impact on morale when staff is absent."
Carroll said that sometimes leads to being short-staffed when replacements can't be found.
"We acknowledge that most of our staff attend work regularly and aren't off work very often," he said.
"Certainly you want to get people safely back to work. The longer you are off, the more difficult it is to return to work We want to get them back safely as soon as possible."
