Why is Cornwall Community Hospital closing beds, and reducing operating room volumes?
Over the past four years the hospital has made very significant improvements in efficiencies. The hospital’s performance has been benchmarked and despite these efforts, CCH is projecting an 8.0M dollar deficit for 2009/2010. An external 3rd party review revealed that CCH is an efficient hospital and requires a funding adjustment in order to maintain required service levels. Reduction in operating room volumes and the closure of 8 beds, which were previously opened to address extra volume, will save the hospital $1.8M dollars. These difficult decisions regarding clinical services will bring us closer to a balanced position. Unfortunately, health care is not immune to the economic downturn. Like many hospitals, part of our deficit is due to the gap between funding (2%) and inflationary expenditures (3.5%).
