Monday, February 8, 2010

Medical Record Jobs On The Line

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Kincardine
by Shannon Snoes    

There are too many people working in the Health Records Department at the South Bruce Grey Health Centre.

Vice President of Corporate Development Labour Relations Brenda Rantz says that was the discovery following months of a review of a benchmark exercise complete in March of last year.

Rantz says that's where they found an operation efficiency in Health Records compared to other health centres.

She says because they are able to access records electronically from any sites, the time - and staff - needed to process the work is significantly less.

Rantz says the reduction of three full time equivalents will take place by July 4th of 2010.

However Rantz says they've already found 1.4 FTE reductions, through retirement already -- one from November and one to come in June.

She says that leaves them with 1.6 FTE reductions left to achieve by the beginning of July.

Rantz says a panel will take the next few months to decide how that will happen.

She says while layoff off staff cannot be ruled out - that is not their goal - but to instead - encourage early retirement or voluntary leave.

Rantz expects it will take until July before any official decisions are made and announced.