New head says stealing at hospital a serious problem

Employee theft is bleeding the hospital dry, and the new hospital administrator is determined to stitch up the wound that may have cost the hospital over $100,000 this year alone.{{more}}

“Stealing is an extremely serious problem, and it has to be dealt with. We desperately need greater inventory control,” said Fitz Jones, who is into his second month on the job.

Speaking to SEARCHLIGHT, Jones said that he has begun to look into the problem, and is convinced that investigations will reveal a much more calamitous situation than was previously envisioned.

He said that the hospital is determined to weed out the culprits, and intense investigations are continuing.

He used the hospital’s food bill for July as an example, which he said stood at $41,000, with 25 percent or $10,250 worth of food being lost through theft. This, according to Jones, is the pattern on a monthly basis.

He said that in addition to food, sheets, cleaning agents, and toiletries also disappear from the hospital on a regular basis.

Jones noted that the problem has a trail that goes back years.

“The problem is real, real bad, and has been going on for years,” he said.

Jones said that compounding the problem of theft is a high percentage of food wastage.

“When you see the tons of food that come back from the wards, you know that something is not going right,” Jones said.

There also exists a problem with the collection of fees for the hospital.

According to Jones, this problem is twofold, involving the hospital and the patients.

Jones said that for the year alone, the hospital is owed $230,000 in fees, and stressed that the public will be surprised that it isn’t the indigent that are racking up the bills.

He said that people are just disregarding the hospital fees.

He, however, admitted that a problem of administration does exist, because it takes too long to generate patient bills after they are discharged.

“Sometimes people have to wait up to three months, and that is unsatisfactory,” Jones said.

He said that he has held meetings to discuss the problem, and the suggestion was made to enlist the services of bailiffs to get the outstanding money.

“But we have to be more efficient first, and then bailiffs can be considered,” Jones said.

Jones used these problems to highlight the need for a new hospital administrative structure, which he says will come when the hospital becomes a statutory corporation, run by a Board of Directors.

When this process is completed, hopefully in 2009, the employees at the hospital will be under the direct management of the hospital and not under the public service setup – making way for greater accountability.

Jones said that the organization of fee structure, the operating procedure, and the management of the terms of agreement for the staff are among the issues still being ironed out, before the transition could take place.

He also sought to allay fears that the new structure would see a hike in hospital fees, stating that with better management, the money that has been flushed down the toilet over the years will be minimized.

The hospital will be more financially stable, without increasing fees, according to Jones.

“Right now, of every $1 spent, the hospital sees ten cents in returns. This has to change,” Jones said.