The finances of the Sunrise Health Region continue to flow in the red.
The Region's 2014-15 operating expenses are more than operating revenue by $862,652 through to April 30 of this year, heard the Region's Board at its regular meeting held in the city June 25.
The numbers were impacted in the revenue side by a shortfall of $591,572 from what was budgeted, which is a 3.2 variance on the year-to-date (YTD) budget.
Total inpatient and resident services were over budget by $417,236, which is a 5.7 variance on the YTD budget.
Christina Denysek, Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships who represented President & CEO Suann Laurent ,who was away team leading a rapid process improvement workshop for surgical services in the region, said wages remain an area the SHR is monitoring in terms of running over budget on the expense side. She said while regular hours and wage-driven premium hours (overtime) are now operating in the green, with sick time "we are still higher."
When the Board turned its attention to May numbers, the situation worsened, with expenses over revenue climbing to $913,730 on a YTD basis.
The cost over-run showing in May was in spite of the revenue shortfall shrinking to $170,000 on a YTD basis in May.
Lawrence Chomos, SHR Board chairperson said the change in numbers could be based on "anomalies" within a budgetary year. As an example the payment of insurance premiums can happen in a month and impact budgetary numbers for that month. In the case of the May numbers, the detailed report will not be available until the Board next meets in September.
Chomos said it is not unexpected the budget remains a struggle,
"Last year we were in a deficit position." he noted. "We knew it was going to be tough."
Chomos said the Board will have a better feel for how the current operations year is going when they meet in September, with about a third of the year over, allowing trends to be better recognized.
