With the debt at Ohio State Medical Center approaching approximately $35 million, a strategic action task force was created in hopes of combating the hospital’s debt.OSU hospitals include the OSU Medical Center, the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital, OSU East and Harding Behavioral Healthcare and Medicine. According to Richard Schrock, chief financial officer of health services, the hospitals have been experiencing debt for the past three years and are now in the process of making changes in the hopes of breaking even.”We experienced an operating loss two years ago, made a little last year – a little better than break even – and this year we were hit heavy (financially),” Schrock said. Schrock attributes the debt mainly to the decrease in Medicare payments and the impact of managed care.”Between those two, payments were less than we anticipated in the last year occurring in debt,” said Schrock.The hospital administrators are currently taking steps to curb the debt and turn a profit in the years ahead.According to Eric Kunz, chief administrator and planning officer for the division of health services, three committees which make up the strategic action task force, were created by R. Reed Fraley, vice president for health services. The purpose of the task force was to study the debt and propose solutions for relief. The three committees worked independently, under the same guidelines, to analyze the hospital’s situation and make recommendations on how to solve the debt problem and turn a profit.The administrators then took the recommendations of the committees and developed a financial recovery plan.”Some of the financial recovery plan was integrated into the budget for the 2001 fiscal year. We are currently operating under that budget and have not seen the financials on it yet,” said Kunz.The three directions the plan is taking are investing, divesting and consolidating. The hospital is investing in money making ventures, divesting, or getting rid of, the businesses that do not make money, and consolidating some of its services. Family practice sites that were losing money have been closed, the out-patient dialysis center was sold and the space along with the business is now being leased. Harding Behavioral Health Systems have been consolidated and all patients will now be treated at the main campus branch; this consolidation should be finished this month.According to Schrock, other measures that are being implemented are tight controls on the labor costs, as well as price increases and negotiations with managed care companies to get fair payment. With these changes taking place administrators hope to make a dent in the debt and possibly break even.”The budget that we have for the current fiscal year would anticipate that we would get close to break even and maybe even make a little money, but it’s basically a break even approach,” Schrock said.Due to changes in management taking place, Schrock was not certain if the committees would be a part of next year’s budget or the fate of the debt. However, as of now Schrock has an optimistic outlook.”We think we are implementing a general plan in such a way that we expect to see positive results,” Schrock said.