Hospital trims workforce
Referrals to out-of-county facilities primarily to blame for cutback
By KLONIE JORDAN Executive Editor editor@gaffneyledger.com

"It's horribly frustrating. We've made a tremendous commitment to this community. We have a monthly payroll of $1.3 million. We spent $4.8 million on a new outpatient surgery facility and still the bulk of surgical referrals go out of town." - JOE HOWELL UCMC Chief Executive Officer

Citing a continuing trend of patients being referred to out-ofcounty medical facilities and a reduction of in-state Medicaid reimbursements, Upstate Carolina Medical Center on Thursday announced it will cut back its workforce by 16 employees.

The move will not be complete until after next week but will occur "across the board" and if annualized will result in a savings of about $710,000.

"I hate it, I just hate it," said UCMC Chief Executive Officer Joe Howell. "This is the thing I hate the most about what I do. We have excellent people at our facility and I sincerely hope we can help everyone affected by this in any way possible."

Patients being sent out of town for services and treatments available here is taking a toll on the local hospital.

Howell cited as an example the recent installation at UCMC of a stereotactic breast biopsy machine, a device that provides digitally enhanced images that can help doctors pinpoint potential tumors.

"That's a $300,000 piece of equipment and we've done four of those procedures since November," he said. "It's ridiculous. It's staggering that the physicians here don't want to keep their patients in Cherokee County."

About 70 percent of general surgeries being performed on Cherokee County residents are being done outside of Cherokee County, Howell said. This despite the fact that Upstate Carolina has three general surgeons, two orthopedists, three ophthalmologists and a urologist on staff.

Howell said local physicians are referring patients out of county partially because the doctors themselves have ownership stakes in medical facilities in surrounding areas.

"It's in their best interests to keep the patients in their systems," Howell said.

"It's horribly frustrating," he emphasized. "We've made a tremendous commitment to this community. We have a monthly payroll of $1.3 million. We spent $4.8 million on a new outpatient surgery facility and still the bulk of surgical referrals go out of town."

Howell stressed that the layoffs won't have a direct impact on patient care.

"We're trying to keep as many people as we can who touch the patients," he said. "That's our primary concern - the care and treatment of our patients."

He remains hopeful the displaced employees will eventually be able to return to work.

"I hope the people who are affected get to come back very quickly," he said. "It depends on the volume and if we can reverse this trend of sending folks out of town. It just blows my mind that we can't have a prolific hospital here."