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Patrice Martin, executive assistant to Dr. Paul Roth, observes the HSC Committee meeting held at Scholes Hall Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. The HSC is undergoing budget cuts that will limit hiring.

Patrice Martin, executive assistant to Dr. Paul Roth, observes the HSC Committee meeting held at Scholes Hall Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. The HSC is undergoing budget cuts that will limit hiring.

HSC considering ways past budgets deficits

This week, members of the Board of Regents Health Sciences Center Committee responded to proposed budgeting strategies — including delayed hiring and a budget cap for 2017 — in the face of impending state budget cuts.

As a state-funded institution, UNMH is preparing to deal with a reduced budget by “re-engineering” programs and implementing a hiring strategy that would refrain from filling employment vacancies unless absolutely necessary, according to a presentation by HSC Senior Executive Officer for Finance and Administration Ava Lovell.

Lovell said that $393 million, 83 percent of HSC’s $473 million budget, is for compensating hospital employees.

“The HSC will use a hiring strategy to reduce compensation costs, but we’re not going to cut the salaries of existing faculty and staff, and will not compromise the quality of our programs,” she said.

Lovell said that under the new hiring strategy, UNMH will only fill openings that are “critical to generating and supporting revenue-producing activity.”

Earlier this year, nurses complained of understaffing after negotiations failed between UNMH and the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, District 1199NM, due to the hospital’s “refusal to discuss meaningful staffing issues.”

The budget for 2017 has been rolled back as to not exceed 2016 expenditures, Lovell said.

HSC has also implemented the “Lobo Quality Improvement Program,” with the mission of increasing efficiency while reducing costs, she said. The program involves reviewing purchased services for duplications and eliminating redundancies in processes, reports and staffing.

For the School of Medicine, increased efficiency and reduced costs mean delayed recruitments and hiring, and increased clinical volume, as well as improved billing practices, Lovell said.

HSC is considering not filling staff and faculty vacancies, and reducing or eliminating travel costs for the colleges of nursing, pharmacy and population health.

Johnny Vizcaino is a news reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter 
@thedailyjohnnyv. 

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