Hospital CEO Salaries: Are The Big Bucks Justified? - Page 5

Coming from an executive position prior to going active with my nursing license, I will definitely say our pay is well justified. Though we render the bedside care, there's a lot more that goes on throughout the healthcare system that nurses, doctors, techs, etc. will never be able to understand. When we're crunching numbers to assure the budget is sufficient enough to pay the nursing staff and maintain professional coverage, assuring there is additional aids to assist when the work load is unbearable, disputing insurance claims, being present for malpractice hearings, dealing with government inspections, guidelines, maintaining knowledge of the most recent healthcare policies, marketing the facility appropriately( not just locally but globally). I definitely think my job was more difficult then than it is now.

Our CEO's salary was in a newspaper article (about nonprofit hospital CEOs' salaries) at the same time they told us they couldn't give us any raise at all because of the economy. It was FABULOUS timing.

So when all this came out, did you get a raise?? That's awesome that the salary comes out when they say no raise!!

I'm sorry, but I totally disagree. You can't possibly justify to me how in the world a CEO deserves millions of dollars a year. The budget would be sufficient enough if the CEO didn't get paid millions of dollars a year. They aren't the ones to take a pay cut when money gets tight. If anything, they get MORE. You can't tell me that CEO's are fully responsible for the duties you list here. That's what HR and admissions coordinators are for.

Nope. They did warn us that we'd better maintain our clinical ladder responsibilities or we'd get our pay cut though!

In the local teaching hospital near where I live a nurse manager makes little over $100,000 a year where a floor nurse makes $20-$30 an hr. She is managing approx 40 people. Would you consider she is overpaid also? This hospital is the largest in the state. It has almost 1000 beds. I'll let you figure out how many people the CEO manages.

Yes, I do. Does she just "manage" from a desk, or does she get out on the floor and work? Is she visible to offer help and teaching students, also? What is her management style?

Do YOU think her pay is justified compared to yours? You didn't say if you were a staff nurse, or a manager, but sounds like you think her and a CEO's pay is justified. Which is ok, that's your opinion. But, to me, working both sides, I still think staff is underpaid and many work in unsafe conditions. Most CEO's could care less if staff works unsafe. They get paid, regardless. Staff just gets fired. When I worked in management, my floor staff got paid more than me. I am fine with that. My responsibilities were not such that my pay should have been 100K a year. And I had a lot of responsibility! I didn't do the job for the money, I did it because I loved it. But I also only worked at 110 bed facility. More beds=more staff. At least IMHO.