The big bucks

This morning’s Post-Standard includes my salary in its report "How CNY hospitals pay CEOs big bucks."

This is not the first time I’ve seen my pay reported in the local newspaper. About 15 years ago a story included my pay, and I remember feeling quite embarrassed by it at the time – especially in light of some comments that friends and co-workers felt obliged to make.

I am well paid for the work I do. I appreciate the confidence that has been shown in me by the Board of Directors, and I appreciate what the Board pays me.

The chart, below, shows how my pay last year compared with that of the CEOs at other Syracuse hospitals, according to today's newspaper.

CEO pay is public information for not-for-profit organizations such as hospitals. Each non-for-profit hospital is required to file an annual form with the IRS that documents its finances and includes the highest payments it makes to employees, officers, and vendors. Anyone can get a copy of IRS Form 990 by asking the organization for it or by consulting a service such as Guidestar.

About a year ago, Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, reported on his blog about his own $1 million annual pay, commenting:

Americans are often ambivalent about high salaries for corporate executives: They often complain about them, but, at the same, time, everybody hopes that he or she can someday earn them!

More discussion on SEIU

Paul Levy referenced my recent post about the SEIU corporate campaign in his blog, Running a Hospital. Paul is the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Paul's posting elicited some lively follow-up comments, including one that seemed to compare picketing my house to put pressure on contract negotiations at a nursing home with the civil rights protests of the 1960's! Another comment on Paul's blog said, "The hubris is takes to compare any modern day union...to civil rights workers...is staggering." After reading the comments on Paul's blog, I added my own:

Captains-of-industry imagery and class-stereotypes are powerful tools for motivating and for bullying, and the SEIU is masterful at using these tools. Employing the signs and symbols of civil protest, however, does not automatically confer legitimacy on one’s point-of-view or actions.

The SEIU is an organization, like any other. It has no special status as somehow “more moral” or “more politically legitimate.” Because it alleges something does not make it true.

In the days since the SEIU picketed at my home, numerous SEIU members have told me they disapproved of the activity. Some have apologized. They have usually done so after briefly looking over a shoulder so as not to be overhead.

One local labor leader called me last weekend to express personal support and to take issue with the SEIU’s tactics. Significantly, this leader said he was not comfortable expressing such an opinion publicly.

To read Paul's post and the comments it prompted, go to Corporate Campaign in Upstate New York. See also the comments on my initial post, as well.

Life in the blogosphere

Last June 30, I converted the weekly CGH family letter into the More than Medicine blog. [1] For a number of months the content of the family letters continued to reflect the content of the blog, but gradually the blog postings have begun to diverge from the letters.

The blog now includes items that do not make it into my letters. These may be some quick thoughts, they may be references to contemporary events (such as the legal prosecution of health care people following Hurricane Katrina), or they may be comments on news articles (such as the Berger Commission or hospital infection risk) or references to other blogs that comment on More than Medicine.

A comparison of the last week’s activity – letter versus blog – shows I wrote two letters (one on flu, the other on the blogosphere) compared with eight postings on this blog (ranging from "medical arrogance" or "all fish swim in the same water").

The content of the blog and the letters are related – but they are hardly identical. This is interesting, and it is not what I expected. I expected the blog to be little more than an electronic version of the letter. As it turns out, the nature of blogging encourages shorter, more frequent, and more topical entries.

Blogging also invites more interaction. I’ve had 19 comments on blog postings since June – hardly an overwhelming number, but more frequent feedback than I had with the letters alone. And not all comments are from CGH employees. Some are from readers, known and unknown, in the blogosphere.

Unlike the family letter, anyone can subscribe to the blog. The blog also allows me to track the number of times people look at it each week. After Paul Levy, the hospital CEO who authors Running a Hospital, linked a past entry from More than Medicine to his blog last Tuesday, I had 128 “hits,” a new high for me.

Another blog advantage: each posting is accompanied by “key words” so you (and I) can look up every time I’ve discussed a topic, such as “Berger Commission” or “mortality rates.”

I am, of course, continuing my weekly letters at Community General Hospital, as I have since writing the first one on October 19, 2002 (about three weeks after the Board of Directors asked me to serve as CEO). But the letters are not the same as the more frequent, more interactive communications through the blog.

When I started blogging, I thought I was merely expanding the letter content with an new means of electronic distribution – what I actually did was to learn an entirely different communications tool.

Don’t hesitate to write and tell me what you think!

[1] You will notice a number of blog postings with dates earlier than June 30, 2007. That is because, as I have occasion to refer to past family letters, I covert them to blog postings with their original dates. This process gradually populates More than Medicine with the content of past letters and allows me to link similar topics.

Compelling hospital stories

Please check out Running a Hospital, the notable blog from Paul Levy, President & CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Paul is the pioneer of hospital CEO bloggers, notable for the insights, the candor, and the sheer abundance of his entries.

Yesterday he hosted a "Grand Rounds" posting that linked commentaries on experiences at hospitals that changed someone’s behavior or beliefs. Many compelling stories there.