Hospital execs in Colorado......

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“We want to try to pay people fairly,” said Wittenstein. ”Those incentives are what keeps people at the midpoint of the compensation range,” she said, as compared to colleagues around the country.


Wow, what a revelation... it's almost as if it's not just in Denver but the entire nationwide system is rigged in favor of corporate parasites and against the people who actually provide care and the workers who keep the facilities running 🤔
 
Very, very unfortunate optics...

But do put yourself in the hospital's shoes for a minute before jumping to the easy and obvious conclusion. Participation in a bonus program is part of an employee's employment contract, and the bonuses being paid out were for 2019 performance - which appears to have been pretty good. A 90-day processing cycle is pretty typical, so yeah, end of March is when those earned bonuses would normally be paid. Now imagine that's your $50,000 bonus that you worked hard for and earned according to the bonus criteria that had been laid out for you when you decided to accept that job...

But yeah, really bad optics. It may not even be legal for the hospital to renege or delay, but it sure would have been better from a PR standpoint if administration had waived, reduced or deferred.

(Be honest though, would you willingly give up your $50,000?)

Edited: For any who are thinking that I agree with the hospital's actions, please believe me when I say that I don't. Many bonus plans are part of employment contracts, so there may be no legal wiggle-room for 'past due' amounts like there is with compensation for future work. Unless they actually do have discretion over bonus payments, in which case they fully deserve to be skewered.
 
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I see a really bad markets for hospital administrators in the coming year. Any idiot with enough sense to get in out of the rain knows this. That d0uchebag CEO in Colorado knows this but didn't give a ****. She just hoped that nobody would notice.
 
DokterMom said:
Very, very unfortunate optics...

But do put yourself in the hospital's shoes for a minute before jumping to the easy and obvious conclusion. Participation in a bonus program is part of an employee's employment contract, and the bonuses being paid out were for 2019 performance - which appears to have been pretty good. A 90-day processing cycle is pretty typical, so yeah, end of March is when those earned bonuses would normally be paid. Now imagine that's your $50,000 bonus that you worked hard for and earned according to the bonus criteria that had been laid out for you when you decided to accept that job...

But yeah, really bad optics. It may not even be legal for the hospital to reneg or delay, but it sure would have been better from a PR standpoint if administration had waived, reduced or deferred.

(Be honest though, would you willingly give up your $50,000?)
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If I was making enough to deserve a 50-230k bonus. Hopefully I would have some saving and would forgo the bonus at this time.

Look at all those big company’s CEO’s who has reduced their salaries to $1. Good publicity, free. I am sure in a few months/years they will recuperate whatever they gave up.

Just poor optic.
 
Without going into how I believe that CEO and other hospital and insurance execs and administrators are over paid...

I guess if the bonuses were based on work from 2019 then the company may have been contractually obligated to pay the bonuses. This time next year they probably wont be getting those same bonuses based on FY 2020 performance. Hopefully, the CEO and other execs/administration should also be subject to a pay cut for the FY 2020 based on performance...
 
DokterMom said:
Very, very unfortunate optics...

But do put yourself in the hospital's shoes for a minute before jumping to the easy and obvious conclusion. Participation in a bonus program is part of an employee's employment contract, and the bonuses being paid out were for 2019 performance - which appears to have been pretty good. A 90-day processing cycle is pretty typical, so yeah, end of March is when those earned bonuses would normally be paid. Now imagine that's your $50,000 bonus that you worked hard for and earned according to the bonus criteria that had been laid out for you when you decided to accept that job...

But yeah, really bad optics. It may not even be legal for the hospital to reneg or delay, but it sure would have been better from a PR standpoint if administration had waived, reduced or deferred.

(Be honest though, would you willingly give up your $50,000?)
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This rings hollow when physician bonuses and extra shift compensation is withheld despite it “already having been earned” (see Globe article about BIDMC ER docs getting hit).
 
Sure they will! They'll get the bailout money from the government, pat themselves on the back for doing such a "great" job through the pandemic, lay off tons of people because "money is tight", and they'll still get their bonuses (I mean the admins will get their bonuses. Not the peons).
Guillemot said:
Without going into how I believe that CEO and other hospital and insurance execs and administrators are over paid...

I guess if the bonuses were based on work from 2019 then the company may have been contractually obligated to pay the bonuses. This time next year they probably wont be getting those same bonuses based on FY 2020 performance. Hopefully, the CEO and other execs/administration should also be subject to a pay cut for the FY 2020 based on performance...
Click to expand...
 
abolt18 said:
Sure they will! They'll get the bailout money from the government, pat themselves on the back for doing such a "great" job through the pandemic, lay off tons of people because "money is tight", and they'll still get their bonuses (I mean the admins will get their bonuses. Not the peons).
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Sadly, this will happen. If not for this hospital, many others.
 
Robotic Wis-Hipple said:
Every physician and nurse should demand national 50th percentile for their position as a minimum going forward at that place seeing as how that’s the justification for executive bonuses.

Oh, and what’s a Chief Experience Officer?
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Since health care now is an “experience”; no longer we are healers and physicians. We are at the front line to provide customer service, of course we should have someone who will make sure what the customers want is what they get. Ensure the organization will receive 5 star reviews should be the top objective.
 
DokterMom said:
Very, very unfortunate optics...

But do put yourself in the hospital's shoes for a minute before jumping to the easy and obvious conclusion. Participation in a bonus program is part of an employee's employment contract, and the bonuses being paid out were for 2019 performance - which appears to have been pretty good. A 90-day processing cycle is pretty typical, so yeah, end of March is when those earned bonuses would normally be paid. Now imagine that's your $50,000 bonus that you worked hard for and earned according to the bonus criteria that had been laid out for you when you decided to accept that job...

But yeah, really bad optics. It may not even be legal for the hospital to reneg or delay, but it sure would have been better from a PR standpoint if administration had waived, reduced or deferred.

(Be honest though, would you willingly give up your $50,000?)
Click to expand...

The hospital is prioritizing paying out bonuses rather than paying staff to provide patient care amidst a pandemic. Yeah, “unfortunate” optics. It shows exactly what healthcare systems actually value, despite all the billboards and TV ads saying that they care for patients.

If the hospital was offering me a $50k check from a bonus I earned, would I turn it down? No. But if they told me that they would have to delay the payment for a year or two to reallocate funds during this unprecedented crisis would I understand? Yes.
 
Urzuz said:
The hospital is prioritizing paying out bonuses rather than paying staff to provide patient care amidst a pandemic. Yeah, “unfortunate” optics. It shows exactly what healthcare systems actually value, despite all the billboards and TV ads saying that they care for patients.

If the hospital was offering me a $50k check from a bonus I earned, would I turn it down? No. But if they told me that they would have to delay the payment for a year or two to reallocate funds during this unprecedented crisis would I understand? Yes.
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And people are still going into specialties that don't allow independent practice, just because they pay better than outpatient medicine, or because they "hate" clinic. Future attendings in those specialties deserve everything coming their way.

When all Covid is said and done, the healthcare systems will use their losses during the epidemic as a pretext to lower employee salaries, exactly as the insurance industry raises premiums after big hurricanes every single time. Good luck finding another job, if one doesn't like working for 200K. And it won't be just for a year or two. To quote healthcare execs, salaries tend to stick (that's why they'd rather hire locums from other states than pay a good rate to a local person).
 
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Urzuz said:
If the hospital was offering me a $50k check from a bonus I earned, would I turn it down? No. But if they told me that they would have to delay the payment for a year or two to reallocate funds during this unprecedented crisis would I understand? Yes.
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Agreed.
 
FFP said:
To quote healthcare execs, salaries tend to stick (that's why they'd rather hire locums from other states than pay a good rate to a local person).
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Could you elaborate on this? It makes no sense to me on many levels.
 
2.0% said:
Could you elaborate on this? It makes no sense to me on many levels.
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After the crisis the travelers leave (and their inflated expense with them). Local dr joe schmo gets used to $4000 per shift and when you want to go back to the old norm dr joe doesn’t want to go back to $2000 per shift (numbers made up)
 
2.0% said:
Could you elaborate on this? It makes no sense to me on many levels.
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Probably the most common manifestation of this recently has been in group acquisitions. If the old partner docs were used to making $600, they’re not going to stick around for $400. Thus it’s easier to just pay them to go away (buyout), find reasons to fire them, or make them miserable enough to leave and then replace them with younger docs with lowered expectations and self esteem.
 
Robotic Wis-Hipple said:
Every physician and nurse should demand national 50th percentile for their position as a minimum going forward at that place seeing as how that’s the justification for executive bonuses.

Oh, and what’s a Chief Experience Officer?
Click to expand...


In all fairness this guy rode out Hurricane Katrina in Charity Hospital’s ER.


www.umcno.org

Dr. Peter DeBlieux Named First Chief Experience Officer | UMC

Read University Medical Center New Orleans ' news story: Dr. Peter DeBlieux Named First Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at University Medical Center.
www.umcno.org
 
Monty Python said:
In all fairness this guy rode out Hurricane Katrina in Charity Hospital’s ER.
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Yeah that guy (Dr. DeBlieux) seems legit. And he's a doctor... I suppose this role could be useful for someone actually involved in healthcare - which the Denver one is not.

Come to think of it, it's a good role for an anesthesiologist.
 
sb247 said:
After the crisis the travelers leave (and their inflated expense with them). Local dr joe schmo gets used to $4000 per shift and when you want to go back to the old norm dr joe doesn’t want to go back to $2000 per shift (numbers made up)
Click to expand...
ambiturner said:
Probably the most common manifestation of this recently has been in group acquisitions. If the old partner docs were used to making $600, they’re not going to stick around for $400. Thus it’s easier to just pay them to go away (buyout), find reasons to fire them, or make them miserable enough to leave and then replace them with younger docs with lowered expectations and self esteem.
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Thanks for the responses. I understand paying locums a premium when they are needed. It seems like these strategies more often result in a more expensive revolving door of talent, with little departmental development and less regard for patient outcomes long term. Isn't it ultimately less practical in actually saving money?
 
kidthor said:
Yeah that guy (Dr. DeBlieux) seems legit. And he's a doctor... I suppose this role could be useful for someone actually involved in healthcare - which the Denver one is not.

Come to think of it, it's a good role for an anesthesiologist.
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We know what a CEO, CFO, and CMO do. DeBlieux appears to have been CMO before he was "lateral"'ed to CXO, which imo is a position that might as well be chief cheerleading officer or some other nonsense.
 
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2.0% said:
Thanks for the responses. I understand paying locums a premium when they are needed. It seems like these strategies more often result in a more expensive revolving door of talent, with little departmental development and less regard for patient outcomes long term. Isn't it ultimately less practical in actually saving money?
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Long term, it's better to pay high salaries to temporary employees and low salaries to permanent ones. It must be working, because they've been doing it for ages.

I remember being a fresh attending and having a handful of out-of-state locum CRNAs, in the department, who were making almost as much as an attending. They also came with the proportional attitude.
 
FFP said:
Long term, it's better to pay high salaries to temporary employees and low salaries to permanent ones. It must be working, because they've been doing it for ages.

I remember being a fresh attending and having a handful of out-of-state locum CRNAs, in the department, who were making almost as much as an attending. They also came with the proportional attitude.
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If I was a nurse making as much as an MD, I would have an attitude as well.
 
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