April 29, 2005

STATEMENT BY BILL RYAN RE: SPECIAL MEETING OF COUNTY BOARD TO DEAL WITH MEDICAL CENTER PAYROLL SYSTEM

“I’ve called a special meeting of the Board for Monday, May 2 at 4:30 PM, to take up bonding legislation in the amount of $2 million to finance a new human resources and payroll system at the Medical Center.

The Medical Center has an immediate need to bring its $260 million payroll system under control. Currently, there are indications that upwards of $7.5 million is being improperly paid out annually, the result of the inadequate, manual payroll system now in use.

Pitts Management uncovered this problem months ago and alerted the Financial Improvement Committee and the Medical Center Board. A system of payroll certification by individual managers, department-by-department, was immediately put into place as a stopgap measure.

Pitts moved quickly to assess and then acquire an appropriate, computerized payroll system that would accurately manage all human resource and payroll data. They selected the Kronos system.

Kronos currently is installed in more than 4,000 health care facilities across the United States.
Hospitals, such as Yale-New Haven Hospital, Loyola University Hospital, New York- Presbyterian Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, and Good Samaritan Hospital, to name a few, use the Kronos system.

Pitts completed their work and delivered their request for Kronos to the Board of Legislators over a month ago. At our meeting on March 21st, the item was blocked from being referred to the Budget Committee where it could be reviewed and acted on. At our April 11th meeting, after a delay of three weeks, the item was referred to the Budget Committee. On April 25th, the Budget Committee, the Committee on County Officers and Departments and Medical Center officials met for a full discussion of the need for the Kronos system. The item was unanimously approved and sent to the full Board for action that evening. Unfortunately, minority leader George Oros, once again without explanation, blocked all other legislators from voting to approve the new system. His actions were irresponsible. It further delayed the implementation of this important system and it undermines the efforts of the hospital to control expenses and save money.

Let me commend the many legislators, including Republicans Gordon Burrows, Ursula LaMotte and Bernice Spreckman, who were prepared to vote for the system last Monday evening.

County residents will not tolerate further delay. They want this hospital to survive. They want it to be operationally strong and financially stable. We must give management the tools to eliminate problems in one of the hospital’s largest expense areas. This is too critical to tolerate further stalling. I have asked the Board to act on this on Monday and my hope is that partisan politics will be left on the doorstep when it comes time for them to vote.”