CRMC New Budget Focus To Decrease Contract Labor Expenses

A major change in Cookeville Regional’s new fiscal year budget comes from a desire to decrease contract labor expenses.

That’s according to the hospital’s CFO Tommye Rena Wells.

“Because that contract labor expense, as everyone knows across the nation, has risen dramatically,” Wells said. “It has in the facility as well. So that is going to be one of our major focuses going into this next fiscal year.”

Wells said that they decreased the contract labor budget by some $3.7 million due to the anticipation of hiring more personnel. This brings that line item from about $23 million to $19.3 million.

Wells said that this mainly applies to the nursing staff. She said that it also affects personnel all the way down to ancillary positions such as imaging, respiratory therapy, and things of that nature.

Wells said that the facility currently has 534 positions open which include full-time, part-time and PRN.