Providence Health Care, Spokanes largest hospital-system operator, has hired a high-profile industry consultant to evaluate the performance of its hospitals, and says the intensive study likely will result in cost-cutting measures.


The consultant, Chicago-based Navigant Consulting Inc., is spending four weeks evaluating Sacred Heart Medical Center, the largest hospital in the Providence system and one of Spokanes largest employers, says Ryland Skip Davis, Providences CEO. It then will devote two weeks to evaluating Holy Family Hospital, on Spokanes North Side; Deer Park Hospital, in Deer Park; St. Josephs Hospital, in Chewelah; and Mount Carmel Hospital, in Colville, finishing up its work in mid- to late January, he says.


We will probably have to make further operational adjustments after that process has been completed, Davis says, declaring bluntly that Sacred Heart, in particular, is not carrying its weight in our corporation. He declines to say whether those adjustments might include more layoffs.


In August, Sacred Heart announced that it planned to cut its work force by about 6 percentor 191 full-time equivalent positionsto close a worsening budget gap, and Davis says those cuts have been completed. His disclosure that Providence has retained Navigant reflects the extent to which Providence is concerned about lingering revenue shortfalls that first began to affect it noticeably last year.


I think we know weve got challenges going into 2005. They are not little teeny challenges. They are significant challenges, Davis says. He adds, though, I want to make it clear we are not losing money hand over fist.


Navigant, a publicly traded company, provides consulting services in industries undergoing substantial regulatory or structural change and on the issues driving those transformations, according to its Web site. Davis says it probably is the top consultant nationally for the type of analysis it has been hired to do here.