Hospitals: Who is earning more than the $418,000 proposed BPS salary cap?

The Ontario Hospital Association is disappointed again.

This week Dwight Duncan announced the government’s intention to cap salaries for new employees in the broader public sector – including hospitals – to $418,000 a year, or double Dalton McGuinty’s salary.

The idea had gained some traction in the last election when the NDP proposed it as a way of reining in rising executive salaries in the broader public sector.

The OHA issued a release this week in which they used the 2010 public sector salary disclosure to show that only 77 of the 207,000 people employed by Ontario’s hospitals earned more than $418,000 per year. Assuming those folks were rolled back to double the Premier’s salary (which Duncan is NOT proposing) it would save $4.7 million. If applied to all BPS employers, it would amount to $7.3 million.

Given it only applies to new employees, the University Health Network’s Bob Bell, for example, would get to hang on to his almost $754,000 earned in 2011.

“This is another example of the Government of Ontario and legislators devaluing the work and skills of hospital leaders, and those who lead Ontario’s vital BPS organizations,” the OHA said in the release.

Obviously OHA President and CEO Pat Campbell trotted out the 2010 figures because they happened to be on hand from last year’s response to the NDP campaign pledge. We actually took a look at the 2011 disclosure and found one less body in the more than “double the Dalton” club. However, with all those registered nurses barely creeping into the sunshine list, it would be easy to overlook a couple of high flyers.

Among the list of those in the club, many are actually clinical professionals, not hospital executives, such as the 16 radiologists on the list from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.

If there is a pattern in this club, it helps to be an executive at a hospital in the Greater Toronto Area. Bungalows in the GTA are fairly pricey these days, even in a down market.

The annual sunshine list is not the best source for determining an executive’s real compensation. Executives escape scrutiny by starting mid-year, departing mid-year, or sometimes experience public wrath when their severance is rolled in with their last year’s salary, such as London’s Cliff Nordal and his $1.4 million earned in 2011, his final year. At least he only used up a little over $3,000 in taxable benefits. Ditto with Niagara Health System’s Debbie Sevenpifer, who took home $618,000 in her final year before Kevin Smith was appointed supervisor of the NHS.

While CEOs top the list, the best paid VP is Neil Closner from Mount Sinai Hospital at $493,210, earning more than GTA CEOs at Rouge Valley, The Scarborough Hospital, Runnymede Health Centre, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Centre, Bridgepoint Hospital, Halton Healthcare Services, Lakeridge Health, Credit Valley Hospital and Trillium Health Centre, North York General, Toronto East General, York Central (now Mackenzie Health) and even the P3’d William Osler Health Centre.

While Rob Devitt from Toronto East General does make the club, you have to feel him underpaid as the province’s go-to guy to fix the messes at other hospitals, not to mention his time sorting out e-Health after the scandal. Devitt is listed as earning $425,001.

While her base salary is only $365,000, the board of Ontario Shores must have been more impressed with CEO Glenna Raymond that we were. Bonuses took Raymond into the club at $456,251.

So, who is in the more than “double the Dalton” club?

Here is a rough list of some of the big earners from 2011. The first number is salary, the second figure in brackets is the taxable benefits. Non-taxable benefits, such as pension contributions, are not included. Given the penny is on its way out, we omitted the loose change from the list.

Cliff Nordal, Former President & CEO, London St. Joseph’s $1,454,257 ($3,034)
Bob Bell, President & CEO, University Health Network $753,992 ($76,050)
Mary Haddad, President & CEO, Hospital For Sick Children $712,000 ($28,043)
Barry McLellan, President & CEO, Sunnybrook $703,311 ($5,184)
Joseph Mappa, President & CEO, Mount Sinai Hospital $687,612 ($36,056)
Catherine Zahn, President & CEO, CAMH $674,999 ($77,499)
John Kitts, President & CEO, The Ottawa Hospital $630,485 ($70,862)
Debbie Sevenpifer, Former President and CEO NHS $618,300 ($3,886)
Murray Martin, President & CEO, Hamilton Health Sciences $614,564 ($78,316)
Robert Roberts, President & CEO, U of O Heart Institute $596,317 ($291)
Kevin Smith, President & CEO, Hamilton St. Joe’s $580,246.28 ($73,073.56)Robert Howard, President & CEO, St. Michael’s Hospital $549,002 ($33,679)
Bonnie Adamson, President & CEO, London Health Sciences $534,599 ($20,172)
Gerald R. Savoie, Former President, Hôpital Montfort $527,596 ($3,520)
Derek Armstrong, Radiologist, Hospital for Sick Children $506,524 ($1,151.82)
Neil Closner, VP Business Development, Mount Sinai $493,210 ($7,957)
Ken Deane, Hospital Supervisor, London Health Sciences $492,275 ($11,586)
Marian Walsh, President & CEO Bridgepoint Hospital $487,431 (3,417)
Jim Garner, VP Corporate Services, Hospital for Sick Children $476,013 ($7,203)
John A. Oliver, Halton Healthcare Services $474,795 ($3,042)
Serge Jothy, Medical Director, Diagnostic Labs, St. Mike’s $472,375 ($3)
Sheila Jarvis, President & CEO, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab $472,329 ($9,860)
Shoo Lee, Pediatrician-in-Chief, Mount Sinai $469,999 ($113,456)
Paul Katz, Vice-President, Medical Services, Baycrest Centre $468,320 ($1,790)
Manohar Shroff, Radiologist-in-Chief, Hospital for Sick Children $468,291 ($1,151)
Jeffrey Turnbull, Chief of Staff, The Ottawa Hospital $466,998 ($53,822)
Altaf Stationwala, President & CEO, York Central $464,826 ($13,800)
David A. Higgins, President, Hamilton St. Joseph’s Healthcare $464,233 ($12,454)
Arthur Slutsky, VP Research, St. Mike’s $463,625 ($14,090)
Douglas Sinclair, VP Programs, Chief Medical Officer, St. Mike’s $461,907 ($12,345)
Michelle Diemanuele, President, Credit Valley/Trillium $459,999 ($14,314)
Glenna Raymond, President & CEO, Ontario Shores $456,241 ($18,015)
Maria Gospodarowicz, Director, Radiation Medicine, UHN $456,164 ($65)
Donald Rose,VP, Chief Medical Exec, Sunnybrook $453,800 ($19,179)
Rik Ganderton, President & CEO, Rouge Valley $453,162 ($16,206)
Christopher Paige, VP, UHN $451,785 ($48,154)
Michel Bilodeau, CEO CHEO $450,390 ($3,450)