Washington, DC – May 5, 2009 – It’s no secret many industries have struggled through some tough times so far in 2009 and the healthcare industry is no exception.

In fact, due to rising healthcare costs, declining reimbursement, and specialty hospitals like National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) not being included in the Medicare Stimulus Package, NRH is suffering through a deficit of more than $1 million.

With that, the hospital has looked at various ways to cut back on expenses with everything from doing less printing to trimming costs of hospital events. Above all, hospital administrators are trying to avoid cutting jobs, especially because rehabilitation is very labor intensive and with NRH at full capacity with patients, eliminating positions is not an option.

Employees at NRH voluntarily stepped up to the plate and offered on their own to help reduce the hospitals’ financial deficit by giving back vacation time. So far, NRH employees have given back vacation hours that total more than $140,000, and the number continues to rise.

“Administrators here at NRH never considered taking away employee vacation hours,” said John Rockwood, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. “But our Team Members raised their hands and said, ‘We want to help.’ We have a very enterprising, hard-working and creative group of employees here that work daily to help patients and when faced with problems, they find solutions. This is what makes NRH a special place.”

Rockwood says that employees continue to come up with ideas in their respective departments across the hospital to help reduce costs. NRH has also seen a steady rise in admissions the past couple of months and Rockwood hopes that trend continues.