Dryden Hospital Looks At Options To Balance Budget

The Dryden Regional Health Center wants to continue to build on their infrastructure and upgrade their equipment.
However CEO Wade Petranik says the money isn’t there, especially with the expected zero-percent increase in their operating budget this year.
Petranik says if they balance their budget, it will generate to 300-400 thousand dollars for them to make upgrades and purchase new equipment. In reality, what they are seeing on an annual basis is 600-700 thousand dollars in required expenses. Petranik says generally the government expects local fundraising, but says there are limited funds for donation purposes and a lot of charities are competing for the dollars.
At last night’s board meeting, Petranik brought up the possibility of allocating parking revenues which would go to supporting capital infrastructure costs.
The cost for parking at the hospital is two-dollars upon entry, and generates between 50-70 thousand dollars per year.
Petranik notes one option is increasing the price for parking at the facility.
This is just an idea that was presented to the board, and it is in no way set in stone.
In addition, Petranik says he will be meeting with the Minister of Finance in Thunder Bay, where he will talk about capital infrastructure investment in smaller hospitals.
Upon discussion with other hospitals in the region, Petranik says about half of them are facing challenges balancing their budget, and the other half are making progress.