The financial outlook for South Eastman Health has taken a turn for the better. But Chief Executive Officer John Stinson says it's a good news, bad news story through the first half of the current fiscal year. Stinson says the good news is they're projecting a smaller year end deficit. "We were looking at $1.1 million for our deficit at the end of this year which we could cover off from reserve funds but now we're looking at $850,000."

Stinson says there are a few reasons for that. "Some of our pressures on the acute care side in particular. Our bringing a hospitalist into the Bethesda Hospital to help manage patient flow in there and see unassigned patients who are in the hospital. We've been able to move people through and discharge them a bit more quickly. That's been a really positive thing to help control some costs," says Stinson.

Another reason the projected deficit has lessened is because of the Crisis Stabilization Unit in Steinbach. "That's not up and operational yet," reports Stinson. "We had budgeted for it to be operational. So we're saving some dollars there." Stinson says the CSU probably won't be in use before the middle to end of January.

On the flipside, Stinson says there are ongoing challenges which are impacting the budget. "The challenging news is that we're managing some costs associated with pre-retirement benefits within collective agreements," he says.  "We're not really sure what that number's going to be so that might affect our projection over the next couple of months."

Stinson adds their agency nurse costs continue to climb. "That's concerning for me," he admits. "Part of it is related to our ongoing recruitment challenges but it's also just related to our nurses working really hard and it's tougher and tougher for people to take on that extra overtime shift." Stinson says the board will have to seriously consider developing a plan to ensure these costs are controled. Agency nurses are those brought in to fill shifts. Stinson says "agency nurses are great. They're fabulous nurses. They're trained, they're commited, they do a great job but in our minds it's better to have nurses that are within our system and are familiar with the work that we do at our various facilities rather than having to rely on agency nurses."

Stinson says what has happened to the RHA in the second quarter is only a trend. "You never know and that last quarter of the year there's always more money spent than we think is going to be spent. So I'm cautious until we get our third quarter projection."