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HONOLULU (AP) — Wahiawa General Hospital is cutting the equivalent of 100 full-time positions because it needs to reduce expenses by about $3 million.
The hospital has cut the equivalent of 60 full-time positions since May and another 40 position will be eliminated in the coming months, said CEO Don Olden. Some workers were laid off and others received fewer work hours.
He blamed the money woes on losing some business to the recently opened Queen's Medical Center-West Oahu.
"We've had a significant drop in business at Wahiawa hospital. We're still needing to reduce our costs to get to break even," Olden said.
The cuts come amid claims the hospital owes University of Hawaii medical school physicians $800,000 in back pay, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (http://ow.ly/Cdrhs ) reported Thursday.
Wahiawa General hasn't been able to pay six UH faculty physicians who supervise residents at the hospital, which has the only family medicine residency program in the state, said medical school Dean Jerris Hedges.
"From our point of view, it would be very unfortunate for Wahiawa to be forced ... into a bankruptcy situation," Hedges said. "We would like to see an alternative solution. Part of that is to bring partners to share in the cost of training future doctors."
Olden denied owing the medical school money, saying there are "mitigating factors." He declined to elaborate.
The private nonprofit hospital also said it must make adjustments for increased costs of employee health insurance and expenses because of the Affordable Care Act. Total annual revenue fell to $44 million this year from a peak of about $54 million in recent years, Olden said.
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Information from: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, http://www.staradvertiser.com
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