‘We need to focus on sustainable opportunities while continuing to prioritize patient care quality and access,’ said the chief financial officer<\/p>\n
Sault Area Hospital is projecting a $25.7-million deficit this year, nearly $2 million more than the shortfall approved in its 2026-27 budget.<\/p>\n
While the budget was initially approved with a $23.9-million deficit, the shortfall has grown as some anticipated revenue sources failed to materialize.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s mainly due to some revenue assumptions we had in our operating plan not coming to fruition,\u201d Greg Zambusi, the hospital\u2019s vice president\u00a0of corporate services and chief financial officer, told the board of directors on Monday night.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s budget aims to maintain current hospital operations and quality of care as the hospital works with the Ministry of Health on \u201clonger term financial sustainability,\u201d Zambusi said, adding that patient care needs to be prioritized as the hospital works to address its financial shortfalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is hard work, challenging work, and we also have to carefully approach this work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to focus on sustainable opportunities while continuing to prioritize patient care quality and access.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first time the hospital has stared down a deficit numbering in the tens of millions.<\/p>\n
Last year, the hospital projected a deficit of more than $20 million \u2013 a figure that was more than halved to $9.4 million through additional funding by the fiscal year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
The hospital\u2019s financial pressures arrive as it continues to face high occupancy levels, averaging 296 patients per day so far this year.<\/p>\n
While that number is down from last year\u2019s average of 302 patients per day, it\u2019s higher than the 281 average through 2024-25.<\/p>\n
One of the factors driving occupancy levels up is the number of alternate level of care (ALC) patients \u2013 or patients who no longer require acute hospital services but are awaiting placement in alternative settings, such as long-term care or supportive living.<\/p>\n
In the first quarter of the 2026-27 year, the hospital averaged 75 ALC patients per day, or 2,287 ALC patient days per month.<\/p>\n
As occupancy remained high through the summer, unlike in previous years, the hospital had to implement surge measures and utilize alternate care spaces to accommodate patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to have challenges as our occupancy rises,\u201d Zambusi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have quite a few ALC or alternative level of care patients in our hospital, which help contribute to the higher volume.\u201d<\/p>\n
SAH also struggled to meet certain wait time targets in the first quarter of the year.<\/p>\n
The 90th percentile wait time for an initial physician assessment was 6.2 hours against a target of 5.3 hours \u2013 meaning nine out of 10 patients were seen within 6.2 hours.<\/p>\n
For admission to an inpatient bed, the 90th percentile wait time was 46.9 hours against a target of 35.6.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, when our occupancy is higher or we have higher ALC levels, it’s a challenge to hit that target,\u201d Zambusi said.<\/p>\n
The hospital performed better in other areas, however, through the first quarter.<\/p>\n
The 90th percentile ambulance offload time was recorded at 15 minutes in the first quarter\u00a0\u2013 half of its 30-minute target.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that we’ve done is a horizontal waiting room, so that allows patients to wait on stretchers and to move them into the department in a more expedited fashion,\u201d Zambusi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve actually also added a registered practical nurse to our entry area.\u201d<\/p>\n
The transitional support program at Windsor Place Retirement Home has added capacity for 10 additional residents, alleviating some of the sustained ALC pressure at the hospital.<\/p>\n
A number of patients are now able to access certain types of care in the community, as the hospital\u2019s home immunoglobulin program now supports 54 people in the community \u2013 reducing the need for hospital visits.<\/p>\n
Construction has also expanded the hospital’s emergency department parking by 94 spaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always want to review our performance \u2013 this is not just about seeing what’s red or green,\u201d Zambusi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur teams are actively looking at how we can improve, hit our target, improve our patient experience, and move us forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
SooToday has reached out to Sault Area Hospital for more information on this year’s projected deficit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘We need to focus on sustainable opportunities while continuing to prioritize patient care quality and access,’ said the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-914536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}