Camera courtesy of Voth's Countrywide Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1

 

Saskatchewan health regions say they are saving money by reducing overtime hours and sick time, and the Cypress Health Region is leading the way.

The province says in the first six months of the 2010-11 fiscal year, the number of hours worked at premium rates per full-time employee (FTE) is down just over 20% from the same period a year before, a saving of eight million dollars. And in that same stretch, sick time was down an average of 4.4% per FTE from the same period in the previous year.

Cypress Health is one of the top health regions in the province, with the fewest sick leave hours (12.64 hours per FTE), and the third lowest overtime paid (7.57 hours per FTE).