San Mateo County supervisors look to cut hospital costs

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jun 23, 2009 | by Shaun Bishop

San Mateo County supervisors began a five-year effort to cut costs at the San Mateo County-run hospital by more than $20 million by approving a tentative budget that eliminates more than 70 jobs at the medical center.

The cuts, which mostly target vacant positions at the hospital and will result in only a few layoffs, came in the supervisors' first day of budget hearings on Monday for the county's $1.76 billion budget.

A budget plan laid out by County Manager David Boesch calls for supervisors to use $57.5 million in cash from the county's ample reserve fund to fill the bulk of a $72.8 million deficit in fiscal year 2009-2010 instead of making draconian cuts similar to other California counties.

If supervisors approve the plan, the rest of the deficit will be made up through $15.3 million in cuts to departments, including a $4.4 million cut to the medical center's funding from the general fund.

County officials want to cut the general fund's contribution to the hospital's budget from $72 million to $50 million by 2013-2014.

Other departments whose tentative budgets were approved Monday by the board include the District Attorney's Office, the Probation Department and the coroner. Supervisors will consider finalizing the budget in September.

Providing care to patients currently makes up 84 percent of the county Health System's budget, while preventive care makes up only 16 percent, Health System Chief Jean Fraser said.

Fraser said her goal is to "shrink this entire pie" by emphasizing preventive care in an effort to keep people out of the public health system and the San Mateo Medical Center, which provides nearly all of the county's indigent care and has been an annual drain on the county's budget.

The health system's budget eliminates 71 positions at the medical center to save $5.8 million, but most of those were vacant and only three people will be laid off, Fraser said. About 20 current employees whose jobs were eliminated have been transferred to other positions.

Still, several employee unions expressed concern with the cuts. A California Nurses Association representative said the county should reconsider shifting the schedules of nurses at county clinics and replacing them with medical assistants to save money.

"The cuts to nurses and clinics will not shrink the pie," labor representative Tim Jenkins said. "In fact, it'll make it bigger."

Sheriff Greg Munks found support for his $155 million budget on Monday after asking supervisors for a couple add-ons.

Munks wants to open a new rehabilitation center for female inmates at a cost of $941,000. He also said he needs an extra sergeant, at a cost of $240,000, to add to the group of officials working on planning for the county's replacement-jail project.

"I need to keep building that unit so we can keep this project on track," Munks told the supervisors.

He found support for the sergeant's position from Supervisor Adrienne Tissier, who said it is crucial to avoid more severe overcrowding in the county's existing jails.

"The longer we take to get the people on to continue that, the further out the jail will be," Tissier said. "We cannot afford being behind the eight ball when it comes to jail planning."

Reach Shaun Bishop at sbishop@dailynewsgroup.com.