Natividad hospital CEO could earn $387,000 a year

The Monterey County Board of Supervisors Tuesday are set to approve a massive salary boost for the yet-to-be-named CEO of Natividad Medical Center.

The hospital executive would earn between $283,512 and $387,000, not including benefits. This is more than 60 percent above the current wage limit of $243,216.

Supervisor Fernando Armenta says the proposed salary is in the range of what CEOs make at private and other safety-net hospitals. “If we are going to pay for the top person… then we better be ready to cough up the bucks to do it,” he says.

Supervisor Jane Parker agrees, adding that the compensation is tied to clear performance objectives. “We are going to know whether this person is doing the job pretty quickly,” Parker says, “and if he or she can actually make improvements then they can stay and be eligible for more money.”

The county has offered the job to an applicant but Armenta and Parker declined to name the choice because negotiations are ongoing.

Natividad is now under the management of Wellspring Management Services LLC, an offshoot of Chicago-based Huron Consulting Group. The consultant team has dramatically turned around the public hospital and is now transiting Natividad into permanent – and high-paid – management.

In addition to bumping the CEO’s pay, the supervisors will consider increasing the wage range for three other executive positions and create two new management roles: chief information officer and chief medical officer.

The raises and new executives would cost Natividad $488,571 this fiscal year at a time when the county is cutting jobs to offset a nearly $25 million deficit.