Home Industries Health Services As finances improve, CNE looks to save on labor costs

As finances improve, CNE looks to save on labor costs

By

Katie Castellani

-

12/04/2023

Kent-hospital — CONTINUING ITS forward financial momentum, Care New England Health System closed out the fiscal year 2023 with a $14.2 million operating loss. While this marks a dramatic improvement over last year’s $58.6 million operating loss, the health system still faces challenges related to recruiting and retaining workers./COURTESY KENT COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

PROVIDENCE – Continuing its forward financial momentum, Care New England Health System closed out the fiscal year 2023 with a $14.2 million operating loss. While this marks a dramatic improvement over last year’s $58.6 million operating loss, the health system still faces challenges related to recruiting and retaining workers. Todd Conklin, CFO of Care New

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PROVIDENCE – Continuing its forward financial momentum, Care New England Health System closed out the fiscal year 2023 with a $14.2 million operating loss. While this marks a dramatic improvement over last year’s $58.6 million operating loss, the health system still faces challenges related to recruiting and retaining workers. Todd Conklin, CFO of Care New England, says these challenges are not as great as they were during and directly following the COVID-19 pandemic though reducing labor-related costs will be one of the health system’s financial focuses as it embarks on fiscal year 2024 and strives to meet a growing patient demand. According to Care New England’s financial report released Nov. 30, expenses related to salaries and wages increased to $157.3 million marking an $8.8 million increase over the previous quarter and $8.6 million greater than the same period last year. Conklin explained that reliance on contract and agency labor has contributed to this rise in labor-related costs, but this trend seems to be subsiding. “As the national workforce has stabilized a bit from the mid-pandemic time frame, health care organizations have become less reliant on high contract / agency labor to staff hospitals and clinics,” Conklin wrote in a statement to Providence Business News. To further reduce these costs, both Conklin and Care New England’s Chief People Officer Cynthia Ring noted the health system plans on implementing several strategies to boost recruitment and retention of workers. These strategies include “...a renewed focus on our team member experience, well-being and enhanced flexibility, investing in career development and skilling up to meet the demands of tomorrow, taking a holistic view of our total rewards, emphasizing inclusivity to ensure equity while implementing measures to address barriers, investing in technology to provide the tools our team members need to perform at their best,” Ring wrote in a statement to Providence Business News. “As we navigate these unprecedented times, these innovative recruitment and retention strategies are poised to reshape the workforce landscape, ensuring a sustainable and resilient health care system for the future,” added Ring, who is also a Care New England executive vice president. While these initiatives are expected to add other costs, they are still less than what Care New England would be spending on expenses related to turnover as well as contract and agency labor, Conklin said. Estimates for how much the strategies are expected to save and cost to implement were not immediately available. Katie Castellani is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Castellani@PBN.com.