New budget means added jobs, no rate increase

For a third year, the trustees who manage the Greenville Hospital System have decided there will be no rate increase.  The trustees today approved a 2015-16 budget of $2.2 billion to cover their health care facilities, which include the Oconee Memorial Hospital.  The budget projects an additional 564 jobs within GHS.  And Hunter Kome, president of the Oconee Memorial Campus, said, “Some of those new jobs are in Oconee.  We have about 79 new FTEs (full-time employees) in the budget and those are primarily in nursing.”  In the year since Oconee became part of the region health care provider, Kome says, the Oconee hospital has seen growth which, he admits, is due at least in part to the confidence that consumers have in GHS facilities.