The Dr. John Warner Hospital continues to seek to find ways to cut costs.

Recently, the City owned hospital approached the Clinton City Council to ask for a contingency fund to be taken out. Earl Sheehy, CEO of the DJWH says the line of credit is a safety net for the hospital in the event of over drafting from their checking funds.

[audio:hospitalsave1.mp3]A Word From Sheehy[/audio]

The first weekend of December the hospital went to just one overnight crew, between 9 pm and 9 am. Sheehy says this measure was taken to continue to help save the hospital expenses that are unnecessary.

[audio:hospitalsave2.mp3]A Word From Sheehy[/audio]

Sheehy credits his ambulance manager working hard to find areas to cut back costs. He adds a private outside service had told Sheehy they only needed one overnight crew.

[audio:hospitalsave3.mp3]A Word From Sheehy[/audio]

These decisions come as the hospital continues to deal with the ambulance service draining the city owned hospital's budget. Sheehy estimates the city looses around $500-thousand a year to the ambulance service because of payback methods by Medicare and Medicaid, forcing them to eliminate the service, which will be at the end of 2012.