Executive compensation

exectutives dont care about patients, staff or anything other that the money they can get into their own prockets. where i work the ceo pay is similar, and lots of money spent on things that make them look good to the public, but does nothing for patient care. there needs to be a cap on what anyone can make who works for the hospitals including outside contractors and consultants. by the way i work for a non-profit hospital.

Yes, amazing isn't it! We do all the work, expose ourselves to who knows what on a minute by minute basis, work 12 hr shifts, plus....

Some People/professions make MILLIONS a year and have perks beyond belief, they do nothing to help a person, save a person, heal a person, comfort a person, stand by a bed side watching some one die and the family is asking for one more day with.., and they either kick a ball, throw a ball, hit a ball, anything with a ball and get millions..what do we get...........................................................................

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100% Satisfaction knowing that we made a difference in someones life or made one difficult, horrible day a little easier for some one to handle. tis why I love Nursing....I am totally satisfied, tired yes, stressed yes, but at the end of my work day, I feel good.

They like to throw around the phrase "quality care" when talking to the public, while making it impossible for us to deliver it.

"Some People/professions make MILLIONS a year and have perks beyond belief, they do nothing to help a person, save a person, heal a person, comfort a person, stand by a bed side watching some one die and the family is asking for one more day with.., and they either kick a ball, throw a ball, hit a ball, anything with a ball and get millions..what do we get...........................................................................

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There are a tens of thousands of people(if not 100s of thousands) in our society that can be good nurses. There are only a few dozen people in our society that can hit a 90 mph fastball or run and jump with others in the NBA. Supply and demand. Athletes are the elite humans. We are very important, but a dime a dozen.

I guess I just have trouble believing that the executive skill set is that rare.

The people at the top earn lots of money because there are very few people in the world who have the skills to do their job. It's a matter of supply vs. demand. If the job only paid $100K the people with those skills would get other jobs -- in the "for profit" sector, leaving no one with the necessary skills to perform that work for the non-profits, who need talented leaders as much as, if not more than the for-profits do.

I'm not saying the OP's CEO deserved every penny, but as a group, those people deserve to be paid more money than the average worker gets -- because those people have special skills that are scarce in society.

People say the same things about nurses making more than $50K per year. They think we should be doing the work for less because we care about the patient. It is hypocritical for us to want to paid a fair salary for our qualifications, skills, and work ... and then turn around and criticize others who get compensated for what their skills are worth on the open market.

In short ... they make that much money because "the owners" are willing to pay that much because that is how much people with that particular set of skills cost on the open market. They make that much because they can.

Oh, puh-leeze! You could put a monkey in some of those offices and nobody would ever know the difference. Okay, that may be an oversimplification; however, I will never be convinced that a CEO (or any executive, for that matter) is justified in sucking that obscene amount of money out of the health care system.

If I may play the devil's advocate... nurses here often gripe about outsiders discussing what a nurse "should" and "shouldn't make"...Is it fair to say that we aren't in the position to determine what an exec should or shouldn't make? When it comes down to the nitty gritty we don't know the whole story or what kind of benefit/asset/financial gain they bring to the business...Some don't add value, but many do. To rise to the executive level, you must be doing something right...whether that's legitimate or nepotism/networking, it varies. Like a previous poster mentioned, non-profit and health sector has to pay a lot because, at the end of the day, they still pay WAY less than the for profit sector...those execs can and do make 10 mill, 20 mill, stock options, you know the deal..So yes, attracting business savy star MBAs comes at a price..

If I may play the devil's advocate... nurses here often gripe about outsiders discussing what a nurse "should" and "shouldn't make"...Is it fair to say that we aren't in the position to determine what an exec should or shouldn't make? When it comes down to the nitty gritty we don't know the whole story or what kind of benefit/asset/financial gain they bring to the business...Some don't add value, but many do. To rise to the executive level, you must be doing something right...whether that's legitimate or nepotism/networking, it varies. Like a previous poster mentioned, non-profit and health sector has to pay a lot because, at the end of the day, they still pay WAY less than the for profit sector...those execs can and do make 10 mill, 20 mill, stock options, you know the deal..So yes, attracting business savy star MBAs comes at a price..

There is no comparison between the salary of a CEO versus the salary of a nurse. As I stated in a previous post, I will never be convinced that any one person should be sucking that amount of money out of the health care system.

The comparison between the salaries of for profit and not for profit executives is not valid either, in my opinion. None of them should be able to make such obscene amounts of money in comparison to the other people who work for the organization.

I'm not really sure a salary like that can be justified.

for the record, c-officers (ceo, coo, cfo, cno) and md's (most notably cardiologists and surgeons) working for not-for-profit hospitals, on average, are paid more than their counterparts working for for-profit hospitals.

another interesting point - from my own experience. a friend of mine and i got together and discussed a recent opportunity. a hospital was looking for a new ceo and cfo, after having lost a great deal of money when the previous duet embezzled several million dollars and allowed the hospital to get two years behind on submitting complete and accurate billing statements to the center for medicare and medicaid services (cms). the hospital was operating in the red, capital improvements had been neglected for years, the medical staff had taken a 10% pay cut to prevent the hospital from closing, payments to suppliers were greater than 90 days past due, etc.

we decided we would take up the cause and turn this hospital around. what we brought to the table was this: i have a jd in health law, two related masters degrees, two bachelor degrees, years of health care experience, i'm an experience critical care nurse, over ten years management experience (you get the picture). my colleague has a phd in ergonomics and a masters in finance, also with all the requisite experience. we met with the board of directors and offered them a two year contract, at the bargain price of $200,000 per year (total, not each). we stipulated that at the two year point, they could either renew our contract and increase our pay to the "going rate" or let the contract end, no golden parachute. our thinking was that our sacrifice would enable the survival of the hospital and give us a "warm and fuzzy" for helping the patients and employees of the community.

a week after our proposal to the board, we were turned down and they announced a contract with a temp management service for a three month contract at $60,000 per month to provide two people (ceo & cfo), with an option to renew for one month.

during a later conversation with one of the members of the board who was very much in favor of accepting our offer, we were told that three member of the five-member board voted against us because we had offered our services too cheap.

lesson learned, demand high pay! it's expected.