By Cecilia Nasmith
Northumberland Hills Hospital had the rare red-letter day, when the fiscal year ended and the hospital was in the black.
Tom McLean reported the good news at the June meeting of the hospital board, saying the 2018-2019 year ended with a $733,000 surplus. As provincial law requires the hospital to balance its budget, that is good news – and an especially welcome change from most other years when an approaching year-end meant a mad last-minute scramble to achieve that balance.
“This means we can do something with the money, and one of the things we felt was responsible to do was to set aside $500,000 into a restricted account for the sole purpose of the CIS.”
This is the Clinical Information System the board has heard of the need for in previous meetings. It is an updated system that will align with a major regional health-records undertaking that will benefit local residents.
It's a major expense the hospital will face in any case, McLean pointed out. His motion to set aside $500,000 of the surplus into the restricted account for the CIS was passed.
