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Forum Health seeks $2.8M in cuts from workers to stabilize finances
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Walter Pishkur
Union workers at Trumbull Memorial and Hillside hospitals aren’t affected.
YOUNGSTOWN — Forum Health has initiated $2.8 million in cost-cutting measures that affect its nonunion employees across the system.
Forum also has asked for millions of dollars in concessions from its nurse and service employee unions at Northside Medical Center in Youngstown and unionized employees under the corporate umbrella. The unions were asked to respond to the request by this weekend.
Not affected by the actions, announced Thursday by Walter Pishkur, Forum president and chief executive officer, are union employees at Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland. TMH and Hillside union employees are not included because those units have been making money, Pishkur said.
However, Northside has lost money 10 of the last 11 years, and more stringent measures had to be taken to narrow the gap between revenues and expenses, he said.
Effective immediately, Forum, the parent company of Northside, TMH and Hillside, suspended its contributions to nonunion employees’ 401K retirement plans and defined pension plans, and increased the affected employees’ share of health care premiums. Beginning in March, affected employees will pay from 20 to 25 percent of the premium, Pishkur said.
Additionally, affected employee unions, representing about 1,200 at Northside and Corporate, have been asked to develop expense reduction initiatives that are proportional to the size of their membership. Pishkur would not reveal the monetary concession goals for the affected unions. However, he said it amounts to 10 percent of their members’ wages, as does the savings generated from the 900-plus nonunion Forum employees.
Eric Williams, president of the Youngstown General Duty Nurse Association, which represents nurses at Northside Medical Center, said that he is in the process of sharing information about the Forum request for concessions with the membership. He would not comment further.
Service Employees International Union District 1199 seeks to collaborate with the Forum Health administration to ensure the long-term stability of the system,” said Erin Kramer, SEIU 1199 coordinator.
But, she said: “It’s difficult for us to consider the administration’s demands while they continue to ignore our outstanding requests for basic information pertaining to their finances. The hospital won’t even share its budget for this year, so it’s like we’re being asked to pay a bill that no one will show us.”
SEIU represents about 1,400 professional, technical, service and clerical workers at Forum Health.
Forum has about 4,000 employees with a payroll of about $170 million a year that pumps some $55 million of tax money into local, state and federal governments annually, hospital officials said.
These moves constitute a first step in the hospital system’s larger financial turnaround business plan, said Michael Cicchillo, Forum vice president of external affairs.
In general, the rest of turnaround plan involves working closely with physicians and the community to get more patients in the door, Cicchillo said.
“Our future depends on smart resource management and hard choices,” Pishkur said, “but we also must look after our valued employees and their needs. We think we’ve found a way to reduce expenses while having minimal impact on our employees.”
He said if he had a choice between having a job and taking a pay cut, he would take the pay cut “in a heartbeat.”
Pishkur said if Forum doesn’t get cooperation from its unions, he’d, “Do what he has to do.” He declined to elaborate.
He said the other prong of the business plan is to increase the number of patients at Northside by 3,600 in 2009 by developing better relationships with physicians and the community. He said Northside had 18,519 admissions in 2005 and 11,417 admissions in 2008, a loss of about 7,100.
Pishkur emphasized that the expense reduction plans are not a condemnation of the nearly 4,000 Forum Health employees. Great efforts were made to balance the system’s need for financial stability with the needs of valued employees, namely job retention and wage maintenance.
“This simply is an economic reality we must deal with,” he said.
The system’s payroll is approximately $170 million for its approximately 4,000 employees and pumps more than $55 million of tax money into local, state and federal governments every year, Pishkur said.
alcorn@vindy.com