After months of deliberation, a committee tasked with reviewing proposed changes to the University Health Services budget agreed on a final recommendation with a 16-1 vote, which was subsequently approved by Chancellor Robert Holub.

The changes were intended to save $4.8 million per year from the UHS budget, which would  be used in the construction of a new health facility. Because UHS is considered an auxiliary service, the estimated $51 million needed for the new building will have to come almost entirely from within the UHS budget.

“There is no perfect solution here,” said committee member and Student Government Association President Akshay Kapoor.

He said the committee understood that cuts were inevitable, but he feels the “negative impacts are as limited as they can be.”

Among the largest change is a reduction in hours of operation on nights and weekends, which will save an estimated $1.2 million per year and result in the loss of seven full-time UHS positions. These changes have already taken effect.

“It is not practical to keep UHS fully staffed at night when few people are coming in,” said Kapoor.

Though these changes appear drastic, “to a patient it is going to be invisible,” said the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Campus Life Jean Kim. “These changes are behind the scenes.”

Of the individual departments affected, the laboratory has been hit hardest. The plans call for an 80 percent reduction in service for laboratory testing which is estimated to save $100,000 per year. Positions will inevitably be cut, though the exact figures have not yet been decided.

She said this change will not adversely affect the care provided by UHS because physical samples will continue to be gathered in-house. Tests that are not time sensitive will be sent to an outside laboratory that is able to process them at a less expensive rate.

Specific policies to determine which tests to do on site and which to outsource have yet to be decided, according to the Executive Director of the Office of News and Media Relations Ed Blaguszewski.

The revised proposal will maintain the pharmacy, a department that was slated to be eliminated under the original plan. In order to make up for the cost of keeping the pharmacy open, there will be a restructuring of staff positions and an increase in the cost of over the counter medication.

As a result of a consortium agreement between state institutions of higher education in Massachusetts, UMass students currently enjoy a 180 percent discount from market price on over the counter medication. The changes will result in about an 80 percent increase in cost according to Kapoor.

The decision to keep the pharmacy intact will preserve four positions from the original proposal, which estimated a total loss of 21.5 full time positions, according to Blaguszewski.

He provided a caveat with this figure, “these are positions not people.” Blaguszewski explained that the loss of 21.5 full time positions does not necessarily mean that 21.5 people will be losing their jobs.

“There could be shifting around between departments,” said Blaguszewski. It is also possible that employee’s could be transferred outside of UHS. Despite the efforts of UHS to relocate displaced employees, it is likely that some will eventually lose their jobs.

UHS was also asked to come up with an additional $100,000 of savings per year, which will be spread among the separate departments. According to Kim, these cuts will be separate from the request for each department to cut between 2 and 4 percent of their annual budgets.

Although Blaguszewski was unable to detail an exact timeline for the enactment of the changes, he said that it often makes the most sense to implement new changes at the start of a new fiscal year, which starts on July 1. Kim speculated that the changes could be in place by the end of the semester.

Kim tentatively estimated that the construction of the new facility could start within two to three years. She said the next step in the process is to develop a concrete set of plans for the new building; a process that she hopes will begin as soon as possible.

“The original proposal included a skeleton estimate of what building would cost,” said Kim. The new plans will have to take into account the addition of pharmacy and lab space, services that were originally going to be cut.

The committee recommended that some outlying UHS departments be outsourced to different areas of campus to save space. Whatever the final decision, the process is still in its infancy.

The formation of the review committee represents a move by Holub to allow a diverse set of voices into the decision-making process. The committee was composed of doctors, physicians, medical directors, graduate and undergraduate students allowed the separate interests to voice their opinion.

Blaguszewski said that Holub “is pleased they produced a plan that he believes is workable going forward.”

Zachary Weishar can be reached at [email protected]