CRMC Budget Projects $11.8M Increase For Employee Salaries And Wages

Cookeville Regional Medical Center’s new fiscal year budget placing emphasis on the facility’s people, with an increase of some $11.8 million for market adjustments.

CFO Tommye Rena Wells said a projected $132 million will be budgeted for employee salaries and wages. Approximately $5.3 million will be deducted due to decreasing contract labor full-time equivalents.

“As we’ve talked about, we are focusing heavily on reinvestment in our staff and evaluating everyone’s salary to make sure they are in market,” Wells said. “And to bring everybody up to a competitive rate to make sure they are where they need to be.”

Wells said another increased budget item will be for supplies. She said the $8.1 million increase is mostly due to an increase in pharmaceuticals because of CRMC’s new specialty pharmaceutical program.

Wells said approximately $17 million will be invested into capital expenditures. Major projects for the coming year include the 4W/5W project, the joint work on the North Cedar parking lot with the City of Cookeville, and other innovation projects.

“I would like to add for additional discussion I know the administration has really worked hard to increase the amount of money for salaries for the staff to try and improve everybody’s situation here at the hospital,” Wells said. “To be sure that all of the salaries are competitive with other facilities so that were retaining high-quality employees, reducing our dependence on travelers, and overall improving the hospital. And I want to highlight and thank the administration and all of you for doing that.”

The finance committee unanimously approved accepted the proposed budget. The full Board of Trustees will vote on the budget at its Thursday meeting.