After years of going deeper in to debt, the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) is starting to pay some of it off.
Hospital officials say they have made a lump sum payment of $2-million toward the $10-million line of credit they had with the bank.
That's something Hospital Supervisor Rob Devitt can't help but smile about.
"Today is a key step in the right direction as we continue our transformation and path to fiscal recovery as we continue to climb out of the serious fiscal hole the organization found itself in last year," says Devitt. "While I am very pleased we have been able take this step, it has been the easy part."
The $2-million payment was made possible thanks to significant cuts to the CKHA's costs over the last few months, particularly in the area of management.
Officials estimate that the changes they made since Devitt and new CEO Lori Marshall came in last fall have led to $1.9-million in reductions in management costs.
Recent funding announcements from the Ministry of Health also gave the hospital a boost.
The latest announcement from the CKHA follows a period of seven years during which time the organization consistently reported operating deficits and depleted its cash, prompting its bank line of credit to balloon from $4-million in 2015 to $10-million in March 2016.
Since then, the hospital has put new strategies in place including a move to have external experts compare the CKHA's performance against other Ontario hospitals of similar size.
As part of its renewed focus on transparency, the hospital is also inviting the public to visit www.askckha.com for updates and to submit questions or comments directly to CKHA leadership.