Mon Health Medical Center freeze staff salary, begin improvement plan due to ‘significant financial challenges” | News

MORGANTOWN — Responding to what hospital officials are calling “significant financial challenges,” Mon Health Medical Center in Morgantown is freezing all employee pay for the next 12 months and implementing an operations improvement plan, or OIP.

“The OIP is nothing more than an appropriate response to the ongoing changes in our industry and provides an opportunity to fully address our total cost structure,” Tom Senker, interim president and CEO, said in an emailed statement to WVNews.com.

Senker’s statement, along with details about the hospital’s plan, follow a memo he sent to Mon Health Medical Center employees July 15. The memo, titled Operations Improvement Plan/Workforce Efficiency, was obtained by WVNews.com.

“Mon Health Medical Center, like many other hospitals, has been facing significant financial challenges over the last 12 months,” Senker wrote in the memo. “Increases in operating expenses have outpaced our growth in revenues. To address this, we have launched the implementation of an Operations Improvement Plan in the following areas: Pharmacy, Revenue Cycle Optimization, Physician Practice Optimization, Clinical Care Practice Optimization, Strategic Sourcing and Workforce Efficiency. These plans will enable us to continue to provide quality, cost-effective care. In addition, leadership will implement a workforce efficiency initiative in the organization by focusing on benchmarks for a decrease in overall paid hours.”

Also in the memo, Senker announced plans to “suspend all pay adjustments under our compensation system.”

“The workforce efficiency component is only one element of the OIP, which also includes efforts through revenue cycle improvements, clinical documentation initiatives and improved strategic sourcing of supplies and pharmaceuticals, as well as a major investment in a new ambulatory electronic medical record,” Senker said, responding directly to the pay freeze. “We owe it to our patients and all our affiliates to continue to be diligent stewards of this community asset while living our mission “to enhance the health of the communities we serve, one person at a time.”

The recent announcement comes on the heels of several controversies at Mon Health, including a charge filed against former CEO and President Darryl Duncan, accusing him of harassing Dottie Oakes, who was named interim CEO and president of Mon Health after Duncan resigned.

Senker, who served as president and CEO of Mon Health from 1983 to 1999, took over as interim CEO and president April 5.

Mon Health Medical Center, formerly Mon General Hospital in Morgantown, has 189 beds and is the largest health-care facility operated by Mon Health. Other facilities run by Mon Health include Mon Health Preston Memorial Hospital in Kingwood and the newly acquired Mon Health Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital in Weston.

NCWV Media Business Editor John Dahlia can be reached at 304-276-1801 or by email at [email protected].