TGH Staff Reductions Approved

Tuolumne County Supervisors have approved some staff reductions at the county run hospital. Supervisors today approved elimination of some vacant positions at Tuolumne General and reducing one employee´s status from full time to part time.

Hospital Administrator Barry Woerman says it is impossible to cut expenses at the facility without reducing the staff. He says the vast majority of their expenses are in the form of funding personnel. But, He says the hospital is able to make the changes while keeping services intact. Woerman also says that TGH has been making staff reductions in the form of reduced hours for part time workers and some voluntary reductions in administration. Those kinds of changes don´t require approval from the Board of Supervisors.

The reductions are part of an overall plan to deal with continued financial problems at the hospital. Over the past six years, Tuolumne General has borrowed over $6 million from the county and used $11 million from the county general fund.

County officials are also trying to figure out how much the hospital will be in the red this fiscal year. Estimates range from just over $1 million up to $2.7 million. The county will have to come up with that money before the end of the fiscal year, which ends in June.