The University of Vermont Medical Center has given its administrators hefty raises and bonuses, according to its most recent tax filing. That’s a “bitter pill to swallow” for the nurses fighting for higher wages and additional staffing, said union vice president Deb Snell.
The medical center on Wednesday released its fiscal year 2017 Internal Revenue Service Form 990 just hours after administrators and nurses left the bargaining table the night before without coming to an agreement.
The documents show that Eileen Whalen, president and chief operating officer, made more than $1,050,000 in salary and benefits during fiscal year 2017, about 20 percent higher than the $866,000 she earned the previous year.
Whalen’s “20 percent salary increase feels a like slap in the face,” Snell said. The nurses are asking for a 23 percent wage increase over three years, and a $15-an-hour minimum wage for support staff.
CEO John Brumsted made $2.1 million in salary and benefits, a 4.6 percent increase over the previous year, according to the hospital. Even before the raise, Brumsted made the most of any nonprofit leader in the state, Seven Days reported in July.
The medical center sent out a press release along with the documents. Brumsted’s “base salary, set by the UVM Health Network Board of Trustees, is $1,024,108, approximately the midpoint of salaries for health care executives with similar responsibilities, and a 4.6% increase over the previous year,” the release read.
“Our approach is to compensate employees at all levels of the organization fairly, using benchmarks and market analysis to hire and retain the best people possible,” said Scottie Emery-Ginn, chair of the UVM Health Network Board of Trustees.
In 2016, the hospital reported paying 500 people at least $100,000. That number jumped to 531 in the most recent filing. Ten of those employees earn salaries of more than $500,000.
The news may increase tension between the two sides, who have been at odds over wages for months.
The nurses went on a 48-hour strike in July. They have since been working without a contract in spite of multiple bargaining sessions with hospital administrators.
The two sides got closer than ever earlier this week, according to UVM Medical Center spokesperson Michael Carrese. “There was an exchange of substantive ideas to close the wage gap,” he said. “There’s a sense of encouragement that we got closer than we have up to this point.”
The two sides haven’t set a date to continue negotiating. In the meantime, the nurses are finding ways to push back against the hospital and make their voices heard.
AFT Vermont, the parent union of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, announced last week that it would divest its funds from the New England Federal Credit Union because the credit union’s CEO also serves on the hospital board.
The nurses have also urged the Green Mountain Care Board, which provides statewide oversight of hospitals, not to approve the UVM Medical Center’s fiscal year 2019 budget until a contract is reached.
Nurses are planning to attend a public hearing held by the care board on August 22. Administrators from the UVM Health Network are scheduled to testify.
Snell said she plans to urge the Green Mountain Care board to ask “tough questions” of Brumsted regarding administrators’ salaries and nurse staffing levels. “There’s got to be a line in the sand about priorities,” she said.
Correction, August 16: A previous version of this story misstated Eileen Whalen’s title.
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I have had enough of UVMC. To do my small part to not feed the machine, I asked my doctor’s office what other service providers there are who can do the routine lab work I need periodically. Turns out there are two, one of which, is covered under my insurance plan. I encourage others to do whatever they can to avoid supporting UVMC’s greedy, avaricious, and disrespectful management culture.
More Trump-enomics on display. Whalen will get an even bigger bonus if she breaks the union. Maybe she will appear on a magazine cover riding on her yacht like that other corrupt Capitalist goof who was CEO during the big expansion.
I will go to Dartmouth in the future just because of the arrogance of UVMC.
Im guessing they are enjoying life in VT more than on their ranch spread in AZ https://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2….
Once again the greedy executives at the hospital have shown where there priorities are and it sure as hell isn’t health care. They could have put the money they got for raises towards the nurses but apparently they are only thinking about themselves as usual!!
Huge pay raises as they are the # 1 responsible party for the growing tick disease epidemic in the state of Vermont. Corrupt healthcare system totally owned by Big Pharma and their horrid ads on the TV,something
that is illegal in almost all the so called civilized world. Up continues to = Down Down Down as the medical
system creates another epidemic.
The rationale provided for paying hospital executives so much is that the hospital needs the best people for the job. If thats the argument, then lets make it clearer just what makes hospital administrators the best. Surely, at a time when US medical costs are already the highest in the world and rising steadily, one criterion should be affordability.
So, I propose that hospital executives receive a low base salary, perhaps commensurate with nurses, and that they then receive significant bonuses for cutting overall costs. The bonuses should be titrated to the savings, so that greater reductions in cost result in greater bonuses. Top executives may still earn millions, but this way, the public will also benefit from their high salaries as well.
A smaller bonus could be offered for raising the salaries of those at the lowest end of the hospital pay scale. Clearly, any institution benefits from happy workers and better compensation is likely to result in a happier workforce.
I’m taking note of the Board members – and their business affiliations – in light of this disgraceful move by administrators.
Once again, the argument for executive pay is justified because it is “approximately the midpoint of salaries for health care executives with similar responsibilities.” Nurse pay, however, is not based on the same criteria. Vermont ranks 47th in the nation in paying their nurses when cost of living is included in the calculation. Burlington has a very high cost of living, with lower than average wages. The nurses are not asking to be the highest paid in the country. They are asking to be average, if not slightly lower. If the administration does not agree, more nurses will leave for higher wages elsewhere, and the shortage-of-nurses problem will only get worse, resulting in poor care for patients. The word is out across the country: “Don’t work as a nurse in Vermont. You will not be valued and it will be economically unsustainable.” So sad.
It looks like the board of trustees of UVMMC has abrogated its fiduciary duty to ensure proper staffing for safe patient care and fair and equitable wages and conditions for the people who provide care. The board approves outrageous executive salaries but says it has no role in ensuring equity for the nurses and support staff–how is that meeting its duty to protect the institution and the community it serves?! It’s been said that management will only pay what they have to. I appears we, the community, will have to make them pay the nurses fairly, The Care Board must exercise its oversight responsibility and ensure that the UVMMC budget includes expenditure lines that pay nurses and support staff what they deserve & need and block any budget that doesn’t.
where there priorities are
Next time try the word their.
Over 3.1 Million dollars a year for the two top execs at U. VT Medical center = Obscene. The medical system
is as broken and corrupt as the political system in the USA. and that’s a real mouthful. The only free medical
we are getting is all the Big Pharma drugs in the water supply.
I stand with Nurses! Therefore I will make sure to have testing, appts made who have “no” affiliation with UVM! I urge others to do the same. Without Nurses there is no need for those overpaid buffoons, support our Nurses as our Nurses support out economy by living, shopping and raising their families here in our state!
Wow. Senior management and the Board of Directors is either tone deaf or doesn’t care what the community thinks of these raises vs. the nurses position. This has the potential to get ugly.