Executives Receive Bonus, Staff Asked to Sacrifice
Hospital executives at a Denver hospital were given incentive bonuses a week after front-line staff were asked to voluntarily reduce their pay or work hours. Read on to learn more about employees reactions and CEO apology.
On April 27th, the CEO of Denver Health Medical Center (DHMC) issued an apology to employees for the timing of executive and management incentive bonuses. The 2019 bonuses, paid out on April 10th, came a week after front-line staff were asked to voluntarily take leave without pay or reduce their hours. The hospital is facing the same financial challenges as many other facilities in the wake COVID-19.
Employees Asked to Sacrifice
On April 3rd, CEO Robin Wittenstein sent an email to employees how the pandemic will cause the hospital financial stress. Wittenstein's email detailed measures that would be taken to ease the facility's financial strain. These included:
A hiring freeze
Ask employees to voluntarily take leave without pay
Use personal time off, or
Reduce hours in work week
Wittenstein warned more extreme options, such as mandated use of paid time off and mandatory leave without pay, may be needed. However, the goal was to avoid these measures if possible.
Big Bonus Payouts
The dollar amount of bonuses is determined by the organization's board of directors. Many of the bonuses paid out on April 10th were between 17% to 19% of executives' salaries and were between $50,000 and $100,000. Wittenstein received a $230,275 bonus, totaling 23.8% of her $967,155 annual salary. According to CBS4, about 150 hospital executives and managers received bonuses for their work during the payout.
Hospital administrators have defended the bonuses saying the money puts DHMC executives and administrators at about the 50th percentile of what other administrators across the nation are paid.
Employee Reactions
Hospital workers expressed anger and frustration over the payments. An online petition, posted on Change.org, called for executives to return the bonus money. The petition was signed by 3,449 individuals and included many DHMC employees.
Chris Hinds, a Denver City Councilman, also asked the bonuses be returned and used to benefit front-line workers. During a facebook live session, Hinds stated
Quote
"I'm really frustrated that we have public health administrators...that are taking tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars of bonuses....while working families are sacrificing themselves.”
Late Apology
On Monday, April 27th, Wittenstein sent an email apology to hospital staff. The apology came 4 days after a local news channel first reported the executive bonuses. Wittenstein apologized for the timing and acknowledged the payments have "caused you hurt and anger". According to CBS4, she also apologized for the lack of transparency writing
Quote
"Being informed of incentive payments now to the executive staff, no matter what the explanation ... has clearly been painful and dividing, especially because you did not hear about this from me directly first. For this, I am deeply sorry,"
Wittenstein also informed staff she too was sacrificing by using her paid time off in place of her regular salary. She also waived accrual of her paid time off for the next 3 months.
In an April 14th email, Wittenstein asked her executive team to also give back. As a result, the executive staff reduced hours and pay by 12%, contributed over $550,000 in salary back to the hospital and donated $386,000 to the Denver Health Foundation for an employee relief fund. According to Wittenstein, a 100% of the executive team agreed to give back in some way.
Board Response
The Board Chair for the Denver Health and Hospital Authority also sent an email apology, writing
Quote
"All of us on the board regret that the timing of the 2019 incentive payments have created anger and resentment, and we understand how troubling news of these payments can be at such a time as this".
**DHMC has 7,000 employees and treats about 930,000 patients a year.
QUESTION: What do you think about incentive payments to hospital administrators?
I could not disagree more with those thinking that these bonuses are OK.
We are in a pandemic. People are sick and dying. Hospitals have laid off and cut hours of staff. Many units have closed. OK, so I hear some of you saying that this is a business and they have to keep this business operational. Then hear from so many working without PPE's, hours cut, short-staffed, and some being punished for calling off for being sick. Some even having to take pay cuts. Why then, would they take this money?
I don't know how old some of you are, but we did this during the recession. Took pay cuts and split hours to keep the 'business' running. If it is such a concern for these execs then NO, they should NOT take bonuses. It is not just a matter of 'poor timing', it is disgustingly greedy. Sitting up far away from the virus and still getting paid and getting bonuses on top of that? All the while all the people, not just nurses that got laid off, are suffering along with their families. Not-to-mention, putting their health and the health of their families on the line. Oh but let's feel sorry for them? I really don't know where you people come from. I just don't.
LockportRN, I was a nurse during the recession, too.
I just don't agree that people in a completely different career path than nursing should suffer financially because nursing conditions are bad. They're not nurses. They work in a different job. They chose office jobs instead of 12 hour patient care jobs. They chose jobs with almost guaranteed bathroom breaks. They chose jobs that don't require exposure to illness or PPE. They chose high paying jobs and sought the education and experience needed for those positions. They took the money because it was part of their 2019 compensation package, and they have families and bills. Then, they generously donated a huge sum of that compensation to the staff. I don't "feel sorry for them." I just feel like people who work for promised wages should receive those wages.
That'd be like saying to nurses "How could you possibly accept paychecks right now? Some restaurants have completely furloughed their waitstaff, and those people are going without pay and struggling more than a nurse who is temporarily working part time. Since they're going without, we should, too!"
My personal values are such that I rejoice for people who do well, even when they do better than me. I don't believe in inflicting collective suffering. I don't believe in collective guilt. I don't believe all jobs deserve equal, or even similar, pay. I believe that all individuals have the right to pursue success, whatever that looks like to them, and make their own choices accordingly. I believe financially successful people should give generously to others and serve their communities since they're in the position to do so. I believe that when nurses (understandably) get fed up with working conditions, they have the right to advocate for change or walk away from the profession altogether. I also believe that it's OK for others to strongly disagree with my beliefs.
Ultimately, we each have unique personal values, and yours might (and seemingly do) differ radically from mine. That's OK! Praise God for our freedom of thought and that we can still love our neighbors and successfully work alongside each other as nurses, even when we don't see eye to eye.
(As a side note, since you mentioned PPE... I think the lack of PPE is ridiculous, and I can't believe it's an ongoing issue. There's no excuse. Frontline staff deserve SO much better. I just see this as a separate issue and don't think it is an admin's responsibility to pay for tens of thousands of dollars in office supplies out of his/her own pocket.)
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
I remember back when the banking industry overextended themselves and nearly collapsed the global economy. Tax payers were told that these financial institutions were just too big to fail. Shortly after the enormous bailout, many banking executives were paid their "previously planned" bonuses. Huge bonuses. Paid for with tax payor money. Yep...everyone swallowed that too, because they were supposedly earned and promised before they crashed the economy with bad practice hoping to generate wealth.
I find it interesting that anyone actually defends this. Pandemic or not, this woman made almost a million a year and got a 250k bonus. For what? For firing staff and increasing your workload? Because quite literally, that's how these execs get bonuses. "Cost saving measures". Nurses and support staff don't directly generate revenue so execs eliminate positions and work your harder to then filter that money up to themselves.
Whoever said “read the room” got it right. This isn’t really about whether administrators should get what they were promised a year ago. It’s about timing. Like, couldn’t they have said “We are delaying paying these bonuses for six months, while the situation blows over”?
LockportRN, I was a nurse during the recession, too.
I just don't agree that people in a completely different career path than nursing should suffer financially because nursing conditions are bad. They're not nurses. They work in a different job. They chose office jobs instead of 12 hour patient care jobs. They chose jobs with almost guaranteed bathroom breaks. They chose jobs that don't require exposure to illness or PPE. They chose high paying jobs and sought the education and experience needed for those positions. They took the money because it was part of their 2019 compensation package, and they have families and bills. Then, they generously donated a huge sum of that compensation to the staff. I don't "feel sorry for them." I just feel like people who work for promised wages should receive those wages.
I agree with most of what you said, but a hospital in the southern part of my state gave bonuses to administrators, then turned around and cut wages and hours to all hourly staff. Sorry, in my view, that's wrong! If you are hired on at a certain rate, you should be able to keep that rate, especially when others are receiving huge bonuses
Simply put, the board of directors of Denver hospital have no vested interest in the welfare of the people of Denver. The board of directors are akin to congress, and the CEO the president. The board sets spending priorities and the CEO executes. If the board wants to show Wall street that they have healthy financials, then the CEO will make it happen and get the bonus as a result. If the board says that people matter in this organization then they will keep spending money on nurses, housekeeping and auxiliary staff. This payout is the result of the board of directors of the Denver hospital valuing their balance sheets over the healthcare workers at the hospital.
I agree with most of what you said, but a hospital in the southern part of my state gave bonuses to administrators, then turned around and cut wages and hours to all hourly staff. Sorry, in my view, that's wrong! If you are hired on at a certain rate, you should be able to keep that rate, especially when others are receiving huge bonuses
This has happened to me too. Pay cut for 6mo because of blah blah blah reason while admin and execs reap in huge salary and bonus.
I've been recently furloughed and am not unsympathetic, but if there's no work, then there's no work. The hospital still has to be "managed" and these bonuses were likely negotiated long before covid-19 stepped into the spotlight.
The headline seemed to suggest that there was a reduction in hourly pay rate. That would be a little hard to stomach while bonuses were being handed out.
For clarity, employees that were offered full time jobs should be happy to be furloughed, and shouldn't complain when the executives still get their 'bonuses'?
One of the biggest issues across the board is how money has been funneled out of the hands of the middle class and into the top 3% of people in this country.
Stories like this, and people who are okay that it continues to happen, show that it's not going to change anytime soon.
For clarity, employees that were offered full time jobs should be happy to be furloughed, and shouldn't complain when the executives still get their 'bonuses'?
One of the biggest issues across the board is how money has been funneled out of the hands of the middle class and into the top 3% of people in this country.
Stories like this, and people who are okay that it continues to happen, show that it's not going to change anytime soon.
There is no need to "clarify" my words by adding sentiments that were never expressed. I meant exactly what I said- no more and no less.
LockportRN
248 Posts
I could not disagree more with those thinking that these bonuses are OK.
We are in a pandemic. People are sick and dying. Hospitals have laid off and cut hours of staff. Many units have closed. OK, so I hear some of you saying that this is a business and they have to keep this business operational. Then hear from so many working without PPE's, hours cut, short-staffed, and some being punished for calling off for being sick. Some even having to take pay cuts. Why then, would they take this money?
I don't know how old some of you are, but we did this during the recession. Took pay cuts and split hours to keep the 'business' running. If it is such a concern for these execs then NO, they should NOT take bonuses. It is not just a matter of 'poor timing', it is disgustingly greedy. Sitting up far away from the virus and still getting paid and getting bonuses on top of that? All the while all the people, not just nurses that got laid off, are suffering along with their families. Not-to-mention, putting their health and the health of their families on the line. Oh but let's feel sorry for them? I really don't know where you people come from. I just don't.