Four months after being hired for $1.9 million by UCLA
Healthcare, the Hunter Group consulting firm presented their
preliminary recommendations to a packed auditorium of medical
faculty on on how to deal with the hospital’s current
financial hardships.
The meeting was intended to give faculty a thorough
understanding of the broader context of the hospital’s
current budget issues said Steve Olsen, vice chancellor of budget
and finance.
Olsen said the Hunter Group presented “hundreds of
recommendations” to improve productivity within the hospitals
while maintaining the current level of patient care.
The consulting firm, which was contracted in Nov. 2002, aims to
give the hospital system advice on areas where they could save
money in a time of state budget crisis and simultaneous
construction of two replacement hospitals in Santa Monica and
Westwood.
“While Southern California is a very difficult health care
market, implementation of these recommendations will make UCLA
Healthcare highly competitive,” Gerald Levey, provost for
UCLA medical sciences, said in a statement.
Some of the advice focused on the ways physicians can reduce
operational costs in the areas of supplies and pharmaceuticals.
Other suggestions included strengthening the overall
organizational structure of the hospital and consolidating clinical
billing to overcome current problems in those areas.
Olsen also mentioned the firm’s analysis of productivity
levels within the hospital, and noted that the plan calls for 8
percent fewer employees by 2007 based on existing patient
volume.
However, he emphasized that the 475 jobs the percentage
translates to would probably not all be layoffs, because patient
volume will probably increase and much of the reduction would be
achieved through attrition.
Several union members were present at the meeting, and handed
out flyers advertising ways they think UCLA can mitigate the
effects of the proposed layoffs.
Rita Kern, local president of the University Professional and
Technical Employees union, said in an e-mail that the firm
didn’t address the job cuts in much detail but the report was
“very good in first passing.”
Kern said she felt most of the presentation applied to the
physicians and looks forward to discussions about the proposed $30
million saved due to staff changes.
During a rally in front of Murphy Hall two weeks ago, UPTE,
which represents 550 UCLA Healthcare employees, and other
University of California unions expressed anger after reading a Los
Angeles Times article reporting the Hunter Group was hired for
millions of dollars in a time of financial crisis.
The Times reported that UCLA, the largest of the UC’s
hospitals, had only $20,000 cash at the end of last year compared
with UC Davis which had $183 million in cash.
Vayling Go, a professor of medicine who attended the meeting,
said he simply wanted to be informed about financial issues, and
said the next question will be how much of the consultant’s
report will be accepted by administrators.
More specific numbers and advice are expected to be released to
the public when the report is finalized in the next few weeks.