Medical center employees will not receive a pay raise this fiscal year, William Carter, senior vice president for health sciences operations, announced to all staff members early this month.
The decision to defer raises for the near future resulted from suffering finances, stemming primarily from fewer patient admissions into the hospital. As the Health System's Vice President of Finance Larry Fitzgerald explained, the number of regular admissions into the hospital decreased by 284 overall, while there was an increase in the number of patients making same-day admissions into the hospital. Such shorter stays decreased hospital revenue.
The total number of same-day patient admissions was 742 more than expected, and 779 above the previous fiscal year.
The Medical Center, moreover, had an operating margin of revenues over expenses of just .6 percent, much less than the 5.9 percent budgeted, from July through November 2001.
The decision will affect all 6,000 Medical Center employees, whose average annual salary is $53,000.
The Medical Center informed its employees of the decision in two meetings, held Jan. 14 and 15, as well as through an e-mail message sent to all employees.
However, Fitzgerald said, the situation is not as bleak as it might seem. In fact, the average monthly compensation of all full-time employees increased 8 percent from fiscal year 2000.
Furthermore, he cited the most recent annual survey of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which revealed that 45 of the 103 medical centers surveyed lost money from operations in the past year.
"If you compare us with our peers, we're around the middle of the pack," he said.
Fitzgerald predicts that it will take about three months before the Medical Center will be able to detect an improved trend in its finances, and therefore, it will not officially address the possibility of raising salaries until May or June, closer to the end of the fiscal year.
Until then, Carter said the Medical Center plans to advertise itself and its services to physicians across the state, encouraging them to refer their patients to facilities in Charlottesville.
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