[A] new federal filing showing that the University of Vermont Medical Center paid two top executives more than $3 million in 2016 is likely to fan the flames of a labor dispute that’s centered around salary concerns.
Hospital administrators and unionized nurses say they made progress during a marathon negotiating session that broke off just before midnight Wednesday. But there’s still no new contract.
Nurses union President Laurie Aunchman called the executive pay figures โdisheartening,โ adding that โthe hospital is speaking loud and clear as to what their priorities are.โ
Scottie Emery-Ginn, who chairs the UVM Health Network trustees board, countered that the salaries for CEO John Brumsted and other administrators are carefully considered.
โOur 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,โ she said.
The Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals has negotiated with UVM Medical Center since late March. But there hasn’t been much progress toward a new contract due to continued disagreement over wage and staffing issues.
The union represents about 1,800 licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and nurse practitioners at the state’s largest hospital.
UVM nurses say the hospital doesn’t pay enough to recruit and retain staff, leading to long wait times and patient safety concerns. The union has pushed for a 23 percent pay increase over three years, with annual 2 percent โstepโ increases included in that figure.
Hospital administrators say their vacancy rate is on par with other health care facilities amid a statewide staffing shortage. And they say their wage offer โ an average 13 percent raise over three years, with larger increases for some types of nurses โ is competitive.
The nurses’ last contract expired July 9. Three days later, the union began a 48-hour strike as the hospital brought in hundreds of replacement nurses to keep most services running.
The two sides continued talking after the strike and reached agreement on a few minor issues late last month. Their latest meetings were held on Monday and Tuesday.
Tuesday’s session lasted nearly 14 hours. Hospital administrators said the meeting included โsubstantive ideas โฆ in an effort to close the wage gap.โ
โThis has been an incredibly difficult process, but bargaining sessions over the past two days led to movement on both sides,โ said Eileen Whalen, UVM Medical Center’s president and chief operating officer.
Aunchman said new salary structures were part of the discussion. But she said those were informal proposals rather than official offers, and the session ended not long before midnight.
โThe teams were getting really tired,โ Aunchman said. โBy 11:30 (p.m.), we felt we were in a position where we weren’t going to be making the best decisions possible.โ
The next negotiating session has not yet been scheduled.
โHopefully the progress and momentum we experienced (Tuesday) will carry forward and get us to the point where we have a new contract,โ Aunchman said.
But even as talks have continued, so has public acrimony that has marked the labor dispute since spring.
The nurses union last week announced that its parent organization was divesting all funds from New England Federal Credit Union because two hospital trustees also are credit union administrators.
And on Wednesday, the union announced that members and supporters will rally outside Burlington City Hall next week as UVM Health Network administrators present their proposed fiscal 2019 budgets to the Green Mountain Care Board.
The union is asking the care board to delay approving UVM Medical Center’s budget until nurses โhave ratified a new contract that ensures safe staffing and quality patient care.โ
The hospital’s budget, Aunchman said, should include โsalaries that are reflective of the work that the nurses are doing.โ
In a statement issued Wednesday, hospital administrators sought to tie together the nursing contract talks and their proposed spending plan for next fiscal year.
โWe are focused on reaching an agreement that values our nurses, compensates them fairly and allows us to continue providing high-quality, affordable care to our patients and families,โ administrators said. โOur budget submission reflects those priorities and also outlines our work to move toward value-based care.โ
But the hospital’s budgets also continue to feature controversial executive salaries, an issue underscored on Wednesday by UVM Medical Center’s release of its latest Form 990, a federal disclosure filed by nonprofit organizations.
The form shows that Brumsted, who is chief executive officer of both UVM Medical Center and UVM Health Network, had compensation totaling $2.1 million in 2016. That figure includes salary, incentives, insurance and retirement benefits, and it’s in line with Brumsted’s pay in 2015.
Emery-Ginn said Brumsted โcontinues to provide great leadership ensuring the organization can balance the need to be financially strong, offer competitive wages to all and carry out its mission of improving the lives of the people we serve through important community benefit programs.โ
Brumsted’s base salary of $1.02 million is set by health network trustees and is based on comparisons with other academic medical centers’ executives, Emery-Ginn said.
โWhile it does look large for Vermont, it’s competitive,โ she said. โIt’s at the 50th percentile for other executives with similar jobs throughout the United States.โ
The hospital’s Form 990 includes pay information for a long list of executives. Aside from Brumsted, the top five earners were:
โข Whalen, who had $1.06 million in compensation in 2016. That’s an increase from 2015, when the hospital reported compensation totaling $866,692 for Whalen.
โข Todd Keating, health network chief financial officer: $959,755.
โข Dr. Stephen Leffler, the health network’s chief population health and quality officer: $828,976.
โข Dr. Howard Schapiro, network chief clinical integration officer: $781,438.
โข Spencer Knapp, network general counsel: $742,241.
The federal form also includes information about UVM Medical Center’s community benefit investments. Administrators said those benefits โ which includes things like free care and community grants โ totaled $193 million in fiscal year 2017.
That’s an increase of about $20 million from the year before and represents about 16.2 percent of the hospital’s total expenses.
