CHICAGO, Illinois — About one in three financial executives of health care organizations surveyed by Grant Thornton LLP said they would hire more workers within six months.
That was 14 percentage points higher than the national number and one of the most optimistic industries surveyed, according to the U.S. unit of the global audit, tax and advisory firm.
A handful of Ohio hospitals contacted about the Grant Thornton survey didn’t quite fit this hiring trend.
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The Cleveland Clinic cut unnecessary expenses, such as travel, prior to the economic downturn so that it would not have to cut jobs, said spokeswoman Eileen Sheil. “We went into the crisis on strong ground,” Sheil said.
The Clinic froze hiring and salaries late last year, however Cleveland’s largest employer, with more than 39,000 workers, continued to hire people for essential positions during that time, she said. Now, though the hiring freeze is over, the Clinic continues to go through a rigorous process to justify hires, she said.
Like the Clinic, Summa Health System in Akron is hiring only medically necessary positions, said spokesman Mike Bernstein. The system has about 8,100 employees and is Akron’s largest employer.
Summa cut its spending on capital projects and unnecessary items going into the recession. “We gave performance bonuses to the employees, but we did not give raises this year,” said Kevin Theiss, vice president of revenue cycle. “We wanted to preserve as many jobs as we could.”
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Summa has had no layoffs at its St. Thomas and Akron City hospitals, Theiss said. But there’s no end in sight to the spare hiring practices, he said.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has stayed the course in its hiring throughout the recession.
“Cincinnati Children’s has continued to hire research and patient care-related positions during the recession in order to continue to provide the highest level of pediatric care,” said Julia Abell, senior director of employment, in a written statement. “In fact, in fiscal year 2009, the medical center hired over 1,700 new staff.
“For all other positions, a process is in place to review every vacancy and new position before posting it, to determine the business need, whether the position will contribute to higher quality care and outcomes, or if the position would contribute to patient safety,” Abell said. “This process isn’t necessarily related to the recession; instead it is a business practice that was in place prior to the downturn in the economy.”
Cincinnati Children’s employed 11,816 people at the end of September.
More than half of health care leaders surveyed plan to reduce executive bonuses within six months. And about the same percentage expect the U.S. economy to rebound in that time.
The health care leaders were much more concerned (83 percent) about the cost of employee benefits, such as health care and pensions. Forty-one percent of the executives said their companies are reducing health care benefits and 21 percent said they are reducing 401(k) retirement plan matches.
