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No bonuses for UHD

By Staff | Jan 11, 2010

It’s not the type of stocking stuffer United Hospital District employees were hoping to get.

Four days before Christmas, administrator Jeff Lang issued a memo regarding the employee performance incentive program.

“It is with regret I must inform everyone that the organization is unable to issue a performance bonus this year,” Lang wrote.

Last year, more than 240 employees each received $100 for attaining a “satisfaction benchmark.”

In February, UHD board members passed a resolution to pay bonuses based on overall patient satisfaction scores, if the budgeted net operating margin of 5.7 percent was met.Lang cites low financial numbers for November as the reason for no bonuses.

He says through October that UHD was on target to meet its financial goals.

“November was an extremely poor month. Gross revenue was $566,000 below budget due to extremely soft volumes across the entire organization,” Lang says.

Final figures show UHD had a loss of $408,000 and a net operating margin of 2.7 percent for November.

Lang says the bad performance is not related to any one specific factor or the building project.

Dan Rabideaux, UHD chief financial officer, says the overall net operating loss of the month was $293,000.

“We certainly need to have a plan in place so we can adjust quickly to prevent a $200,000 loss,” Rabideaux told the board.

While all the expenses have not been recorded yet, Rabideaux is confident December will be a better month.

Lang did have some good news.

In his memo, he praised employees for their “excellent performance” throughout the year.

He says UHD’s patient satisfaction scores are in the top 5 percent nationally.

“Our quality is as much as 10 times better than industry averages in many areas,” adds Lang.