Patient care won't be affected as LHSC cuts one third of its leadership saving $14M, says CEO

The head of southwestern Ontario's largest hospital network is reassuring the community that quality of patient care will not be impacted as London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) restructures nearly one-third of its leadership and executive team. 

The hospital network eliminated 59 positions and reassigned 71 others, which resulted in a total $14 million in savings that will go toward supporting frontline care, interim president and CEO David Musyj said on Thursday.

"In total, this represents a 14 per cent reduction in our leadership structure, resulting in $11 million in savings from terminations and approximately another $3 million in savings from reassignments," Musyj told reporters at a news conference.

"When you're looking at any changes in a hospital, you should be looking at changes that do not affect direct line patient care," he said. "The whole concept is to eventually reinvest any type of savings into frontline care."

However, Musyj isn't ruling out the possibility of more job cuts as LHSC continues its major leadership shuffle in an attempt to balance its projected $150 million budget deficit. There will also be a review of programs and delivery of services to identify other savings, he said.

The 59 eliminated positions, which includes five executives who were let go from the organization two weeks ago, will not receive severance because their positions won't be replaced.

Musyj, who held the same position at Windsor Regional Hospital, replaced LHSC's former head, Jackie Schleifer Taylor in May and ordered a third-party organizational review and compare LHSC's operations to other institutions in the province.

The organization structure is now more simplified and reduces additional titles, which Musyj acknowledged, have been difficult for the public to understand. They include clinical and physician leads and their roles, vice-presidents, managers, directors and co-ordinators.

The changes extend beyond LHSC's executive team, resulting in "a smaller and more agile team," Musyj said, adding that while the job cuts are difficult, they are necessary adjustments. 

 "By streamlining our structure and clarifying roles and responsibilities, we aim to enhance our decision making process, foster better communication and ensure we'll be best equipped to meet evolving needs of patients and staff," he said. 

"There's less individuals so if you need to talk to somebody regarding surgery from a high administrative lead, you're talking to the VP of surgery who covers it for both campuses (University and Victoria) so a lot of it was getting rid of the silos that were created."

LHSC has combined two positions of CFO and vice president of facilities into one new hire starting in November. That role will be taken on by Nick Vlacholias, current president and CEO of Brockville General Hospital.