The Saskatoon Health Region’s plan to make sure their budget stays balanced throughout the year involves reducing wasted time.

“Some of the larger things that we are going to be focusing on are, better management of sick time through some of our safety initiatives, better management of our overtime, so making sure we are better at scheduling,” said Nilesh Kavia, vice president of finance and corporate services.

It isn't the first health region to use management of paid, non-working time to keep a budget in the black.

The Prince Albert Parkland Health Region reduced sick time when they were facing budget shortfalls and managed to save about $1 million in the first year of the initiative.

While managing employees this way, it doesn’t mean there will be people laid off.

“None of our initiatives are intended to reduce employment, but a lot of them are intended to reduce waste in the system,” Kavia said.

These initiatives started after the Saskatoon Health Region put together its more than $1 billion budget and had had a $33 million shortfall. By putting the cost saving measures on paper, the region was able to submit and have a balanced budget approved by their board.

The majority of the budget, between 70 and 80 per cent of the overall is for salaries.

As the province population continues to grow, it put increasing pressure on the health region to provide more services.

“We see elements of that pressure across the board, the more significant pressure has been in general medicine in acute care,” Kavia said.

ahill@rawlco.com

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