With the release of their 2012-13 budget the Sault Area Hospital is projecting some positivity for the upcoming year.
For the first time in what hospital officials described as "at least a decade" SAH is expecting to rack up a surplus of $1.5 million for 2012-13.
The surplus will be used to help pay off the hospital's $60 million long term debt that resulted from previous years' working capital deficits.
The hospital's total long term debt is $236 million but that number includes the cost of the new hospital which is being paid for by the Province in monthly service payments.
"This is a very proud moment for everyone at Sault Area Hospital," said Elaine Pitcher, hospital board chair, at Monday night's meeting.
The hospital's budget for 2012-13 is roughly $176 million - down around $3 million from last year's version.
The projection was done with no increase in funding expected from the Ministry of Health.
"We've used an extremely conservative assumption of 0% funding growth for next year, which we felt would minimize the risk on the hospitals ability to achieve a balanced budget," said Max Liedke, SAH's Chief Financial Officer.
Liedke added the surplus was achieved without making any staff reductions - other than previously planned ones at the Plummer Hospital site - and attributed the surplus to a hospital wide focus on financial stability.
"The hospital made the realization that things needed to change," said Liedke. "Everybody picked up on that message. It hasn't been one sole individual or group, rather a hospital wide perspective to make improvements in our financial position."
SAH has come a long way financially from previous years. In 2009-10, their $13.6 deficit was the second highest in the province.
Currently, SAH is in its fourth quarter and Liedke said they're on track to balance their budget by the end of the fiscal year.
Liedke said what kick started the movement towards financial stability was the hospital improvement plan that was put into place in 2009.
"A lot of the foundational work, through things like the hospital improvement plan, have been done over the last three years to get us to this point and we did receive additional funding associated with moving into the new hospital that was definitely helpful," he said.
SAH appears to be entering financial stability at a good time; with former TD Bank economist Don Drummond's report on ways the government can reduce spending expected to be released soon.
"Nobody's got a crystal ball and anything is within the realm of possibility," said Mario Paluzzi, SAH director of Communications and Public affairs.
"Everybody is anticipating the Drummond report. He's done a number of interviews and there's enough out in public that indicates he'll potentially recommend rolling back health care funding to around 2.5%, which would represent about half of historical increases."
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