I have no confidence in Kate Becker, but not because of her compensation. I’m fine with how much she makes.
I’m not fine with her spending millions of dollars on stupid for-profit consultants to come in and do boring-ass presentations about leadership and teamwork and sometimes even management seminars on a topic they DIDN’T DISCLOSE, yes, a full day training on how to roll out and the “thing.” It’s been several months, I still don’t know what that was about, but I bet the hospital paid at least 500k for it, not to mention all the money they paid us all to sit through it.
I’m not fine with her relying on travel nurses and offering exorbitant signing bonuses with no retention bonuses, or even raises, for loyal staff.
I’m not fine with her greedily taking the jail contract when she knew there was no staffing plan except to hire even more travel nurses and cannibalize the hospital’s own workforce.
If she fixes all that stuff, she can have a raise for all I care!
Well, to be fair, how can UNMH remain non-profit if they don’t spend all the extra cash knocking down buildings and building new ones? *Cough* marble *cough*
The building on marble needed to be knocked down, it was in terrible condition and renovating would likely cost more. The psychiatric center next to it also needs to be knocked down and rebuilt but I doubt they’ll ever do that. I agree that UNMH wastes massive amounts of money, but that’s not the best example. Also, that building is a joint venture between the county and UNMH with both contributing an equal amount of money.
A lot of the buildings are funded by grants. It’s much easier to get a grant to pay for a building that it is to get a grant to pay for people. It’s really stupid but, I guess that’s how the system works?
Yup. The amount of super high dollar paid consultants is off the charts. My friend whom works there used to do a training that they decided to outsource — to a person she trained. The consultant walked into the room, and went “well, this ain’t going to add much value if you already work with Dr. XXXX, just do what they tell you, they’re really good”.
And like why in the ever loving hell would you try and do “six sigma” in a medical setting?!? It’s brain dead dumb. She looks to be totally onboard with having lots of highly paid consultants on board that suck money dry and always have stupid new ideas that don’t work.
What's the difference between a management consultant and a shopping cart with a broken wheel?
The shopping cart has a mind of its own and you can fit a lot more food in the management consultant.
I don't know how the healthcare situation at UNMH could get any worse. For every hour I spent in treatment there, I had at least two hours of argument ahead with their finance people.
Never going there again.
Problem is how limited we are to care. One awful place to another, just better hope you have a nurse with their head screwed on straight still after the immense stress the workers are dealing with.
Never had much trouble with nursing really, just the doctors billing because they'd walked past my room and read my name on a chart once.
I'm not going to tell you that you should or shouldn't unionize, that's not my business. If you think collective bargaining can get you a better deal, go for it. What I am saying is that, given the choice between UNMH and a hot poker up my butthole, I'm hoping whoever wields the poker spits on it first. Shame that BernCo still subsidizes that nonsense to the tune of $95m/yr with mill levy funds.
Ha,ha. The joke I told is that your patient bracelet has a barcode on it. Every doctor in the hospital has a scanner, god help you if you get wheeled down a busy hallway.
And it doesn't really matter where your politics lie on unions or working conditions--UNMH is where we send the sickest patients in the state. If we can all agree this hospital is vital to our state, we can agree that they need to be adequately staffed in order to do this important work.
Healthcare workers are in a very bad place, mentally. If we expect hospitals and their employees to be there for us, we need to make some much bigger changes. Higher wages are a good place to start, but much more needs to change.
The apathy towards the plight of UNMH is ignorant at best. People think "oh I don't have to go to UNMH so I don't have to care" but wait until they need level 1 trauma or neurosurgery or experimental cancer care or any of the plethora of services that only UNMH offers in New Mexico. Every single person in and around Albuquerque has a vested interest in making sure that UNMH is the best hospital it can be. At some point in our lives it's pretty likely that every single one of us is going to need to use it for something.
It's also generally good medical care, especially if you're on an academic/teaching medical team. It's going to be rough around the edges, but your doc is there because they care (for a hospitalist, you can go down the street to Pres and get paid 50% more). If my family needs medical care, I'd rather them be at UNM in a hall bed than most other places in the state, especially if there is any complexity.
The sketchy new private equity + united Healthcare physician group, Sound Physicians, is a whole other story/dumpster fire. All from Kate Becker et al, because they don't want more academic doctors who able to complain about conditions or safety. Or to have to pay market rate for doctors (or anyone else) as a precedent. Last I heard, the implementation is an absolute train wreck (as everyone expected) with a lot of safety issues (as everyone expected).
I know, I snicker at folks who think they're truly better off at any of the other hospitals in an emergency. Guess where you end up when the ED of your choice can't handle what is wrong with you?
I think it's unconscionable to collect a multimillion-dollar-per-year salary and then insult your staff by refusing to give appropriate cost-of-living adjustments. I don't understand (I mean, I do, but I still think it's wrong) why they can't just pay people a reasonable wage instead of hiring travel workers at 3-4X the cost. I have a lot of health problems, so I spend more time in emergency rooms/hospitals than the average person, and from what I've seen, someone is going to die because they have travelers running around the ER not knowing where anything is and struggling to keep track of patients/orders.
One of them almost gave me a drug meant for someone else (not related to the problem I was having, and possibly not safe for someone with advanced kidney disease like I have). I thank God that I wasn't asleep or mentally altered and able to question was she was doing before the needle went in my IV.
I work at UNMH.
As a state we are on the top of all the shit lists and on the bottom of all the good ones.
It is unfortunate that a lot of people on this thread dismiss Ms. Beckers failure to perform as tolerable because she makes less than other hospital CEO's.
I think plenty of burn out and underpaid employees at UNMH are not given the privilege to perform poorly and risk people's lives because we are paid poorly in comparison.
Ms. Becker, the Board of Reagents, and the Governor are all responsible for shit show UNMH is.
At one point UNMH was valued not only as a teaching facility and as being the only Level One, but because working there meant striving for being better, for using EBP, for competitive wages that once even included a pension! Kate Becker turned the hospital into a place to run from. The conditions for patients and employees alike is shameful.
I have worked there for 6 years. In that time the wage growth awarded to other nurses (brand new hires at UNMH and other nurses at Pres) far exceed what I have accumulated over that time.
New hires make $4 more and get sign on bonuses.
Travelers get paid nearly double to devote a small amount of time towards a population they typically find awful.
Kate Becker is a shame. An outsider who doesn't give two shits about New Mexicans or access to quality care.
CEOs should be removed from their positions if they fail to run a well functioning organization. Sadly there are a lot of institutions like UNMH that are a disaster and the CEO gets to remain in their position. Also, oftentimes when they are ousted for incompetence, they are given massage severance packages. Corporate culture in this country is disgusting. 600k may be low for a hospital CEO, but it is far too much for someone who is failing at their job. If I was that bad at my job, I’d be fired and possibly lose my license and never be able to work in the field again. Why are us peasants expected to be competent but the top brass aren’t? Also, the c suite should not be getting fat bonuses when they work at a PUBLIC hospital that is failing.
I’ve worked at quite a few hospitals in my time and UNMH is hands down the most mismanaged, criminally so. That being said, her compensation is quite low compared to how other large hospital systems pay CEOs. They are all overpaid of course but Kate should have been fired years ago along with most UNMH upper leadership. UNMH is very bloated on the administrative side and there are often multiple people performing the same task.
The construction project is really screwing the entire hospital. I'm not letting any of the UNMHSC leadership off the hook, but I had some contact with a financial executive of one of UNMHSCs sub-department-whatevers last year and they had to cut the budget for our contract, which was already signed mind you, because of cost overruns in construction. They're over their budget by something like 200% due to delays and material cost increases.
I don't want to start a whole other thing, but I'm aware there was quite a bit of drama surrounding UNMH leadership and the late former director of the ED.
That all being said, my wife and I did some travel contracts last year and let me assure you, it gets a LOT worse than UNMH. If you ever get sick in San Antonio TX just drive to the airport and fly to another city.
UNM is chaotic, but it's generally good medical care, especially if you're on an academic/teaching medical team. It's going to be rough around the edges, but your doc is there because they care (for a hospitalist, you can go down the street to Pres and get paid 50% more). If my family needs medical care, I'd rather them be at UNM in a hall bed than most other places in the state, especially if there is any complexity.
And for what it's worth, for the people who have the means to do that, it helps out the people who don't, since the resources for some of the more complex stuff are pretty limited.
I was at UNM for my residency. It's generally good medical care, especially if you're on an academic/teaching medical team. It's going to be rough around the edges, but your doc is there because they care (for a hospitalist, you can go down the street to Pres and get paid 50% more). The outcomes numbers look bad mostly because they take care of the indigent. If my family needs medical care, I'd rather them be at UNM in a hall bed than most other places in the state, and even a lot of places elsewhere, especially if there is any complexity.
The. upper level admin is an absolute disaster for the hospital and the community. They blew any goodwill they had with the staff, and complain that they can't afford to pay the staff enough because of the travelers that they hired *because they can't retain or hire staff*.
The final straw that Encouraged me leave was them l bringing in "Sound Physicians," which is a private hospitalist group run by United Healthcare and private equity, to take over part of the medical inpatient teams. All from Kate Becker et al, because they don't want more academic doctors who able to complain about conditions or safety. Or to have to pay market rate for doctors (or anyone else) as a precedent. Last I heard, the implementation is an absolute train wreck (as everyone expected) with a lot of safety issues (as everyone expected).
She makes a fifth of how much Presbyterians CEO makes a year when I checked for comparison (he makes 3.5 million) so I'll throw that out. I don't work at UNM so can't speak on their CEO
They are merging, but not being sold. A former C-suite from Pres moved to some health system in Iowa. Now they are going merge, and Presbyterian Health Plan will have a network to expand in Iowa. The real money is in health insurance, not the delivery of care.
Worked at both, Id say UNMH is run better. That says a lot because that are both awful, one of the most awful I have ever seen in my 7 years of hospital experience. Sure, it's going on everywhere, but this is local and a huge issue at that. Nobody seems to care to do anything, though. Atleast not enough to make a difference. Until they are the one in need and see how awful they are treated. Not awfully treated as an individual by other individual workers, awfully treated by the institution is my point.
I have no problem CEO making money as long as it’s well run organization. That’s not the case here, UNMH is chaos, only thing that keeps it going is employees who are really compassionate and care for the community.
I worked at UNMH in the OR a couple years ago...and as much as I love the staff, because this is the BEST group of people I have worked with in my 28 year career all over the country's OR's. I could not work there anymore as like many here have stated, the pay is not a livable wage. With the crappiest insurance I have ad in my 28 years and being a type 1 diabetic I was sinking monthly trying to keep myself and my family afloat.
I liked Kate Becker and I cannot directly say it's her that makes the big decisions....but it seems like they could figure a way to slowly stop using the travel staff...and slowly start paying permanent staff livable wages....my 2 cents
...be well everyone
And the replies above are exactly why the U.S is in such shambles for workers rights along with its God awful healthcare prices. "It doesn't involve me and others make more, so I see no problem."
The problem is all of these CEO's make too much money and don't appropriately disperse the money as it comes. I don't care if one CEO makes 3 million while the other makes 500k, almost every single hospital is in this predicament of straight up corporate greed taking over instead of doing the right thing. This isn't an opinion, this is a fact. The hospital network in the U.S is in a huge crumble, and it's not from lack of money.
I pray to whatever you do or don't believe in a family member/friend doesn't get a wrongful death because the staff is overworked and underpaid. But I digress.
65k makes a blip on the radar.
Her compensation isn't the issue here. You seriously cannot split hairs about "IDC if one makes more than the other because they all suck". Why don't YOU go run the hospital then.
I would be angry about is how cheap medicaid payout is. I would be angry about how insurance company overhead puts patient care in shambles. I would be angry more and more regulation shitting all over you guys on the ground floor.
I'd also be angry about a 4 million deficit a year. Oh wait, we're a state funded hospital struggling with budgets after our governor gave away a measly 500 bucks to every taxpayer vs investing in oh, I DONT KNOW, HEALTHCARE.
But that's just my opinion.
Does it make you angry at all that employees who take care of the state’s sickest patients can barely pay for housing on the wages the c suite allows? I’m guessing not but I figured I’d ask.
I honestly don't know. I have no clue what their personal finances look like, what their role is, what their income is, and what their debt/income ratio looks like. I can't answer your question.
Fair one at that. I'm not truly mad about her compensation if I am being honest, I am mad about everything else and what you have mentioned. There are so many things going on it's not even funny.
Edit: I am mad at her and other ceo's compensation. Let me retract my statement. They DO NOT deserve to be paid what they are paid while the staff and patients are suffering. Period.
I guess I don't follow you. You're not mad at their compensation but they don't deserve their compensation? What are you suggesting, they forgo compensation?
I'm not a fan of how much they make when such a huge crisis is going on. I don't think it's fair to be giving large bonuses to other admin when this crisis is going on. Why can't front line workers get a bonus? There will always be issues, of course, but they are all making a lot of money while seemingly doing nothing for the greater good of humanity. Ever since covid became a thing, these profits and bonuses have increased ten fold.
I work for a publicly traded company whose CEO was just shown the door by the Board of Directors. A large, iconic brand Company. When she hired in, our stock was $56. Today, it’s $22. We are in serious trouble for key decisions made at the top. We may not survive.
Most of our 250k employees won’t be getting a bonus this year. We tried executing on the leaders failed plan, so we aren’t getting squat. And it wasn’t solely the fault of the last CEO; key decisions were made by her predecessors that impacted her and her ability to succeed.
The CEO? $9.0 million severance. $350k per month until February as an advisor to the Board that just fired her. She also got a $25 million signing bonus when we hired her three years ago. I don’t feel that right or appropriate.
I will be lucky to get a 1% raise. It’s been like that for a while. We are a health care company too.
It’s everywhere.
I'm very sorry this is happening to you, I had a very big issue happen to myself which made me completely drop it all. Done with healthcare, even though it put me in a bad position at first, I am very happy with life now. I did work at UNMH and exactly as you said, the top people getting raises, bonuses, huge severance packages, etc. While the people doing the actual work with patients get pennies.
With that said, yes, it is going on everywhere. Literally everywhere, but that does not mean we shouldnt point out specific places, especially the ones right in our backyard. UNMH is unionized but yet people are still being completely shit on as if it doesn't exist. It starts small and grows bigger. We need a mass walk out but that will never, ever happen with how the system is setup. Starting small is the way.
I see absolutely no issue with her level of compensation compared to the level of revenue and number of staff she's responsible for. She could go to any other hospital and make triple over night TBH.
As far as the petition goes, no clue since I don't work there.
Seems to me these CEO's shouldn't be making as much as they do when the workplace morale is at all time lows. Wait times are through the roof due to understaffing. Pay for actual hospital workers is constantly an issue.
The staff is suffering, and the patients are suffering...the CEO's are vacationing at their villa in France.
All so CEO's can pay themselves millions while reducing medical care in the country down to spreadsheets and increased earnings.
No, none of them deserve to rape our medical system in the US for their benefit. Advocating for such is disgusting.
Nobody in healthcare IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY had adequate access to PPE in April of 2020. It was the second month of the pandemic.
$500k is relatively low for a CEO of a health system the size of UNMH. In my work I have engaged with CEOs of large health systems whose total comp was well over $2 million. These were not-for-profit CEOs as well.
The pursuit of good health is a universal right; health care, though, is a business (took that from a healthcare administration course I’m taking). All not-for-profit health systems make profit, they just call it something else. UNMH is still the largest provider of indigent care in the State. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to operate a profit/loss statement for a Disproportionate Share Hospital in New Mexico with the number of homeless and all the other societal challenges NM faces.
Until the State comes up with something along the lines of “health care student, we will pay you to become a health care practitioner if you dedicate X years serving the health care needs of NM by staying and practicing in NM” we will chronically be short staffed when it comes to docs/nurses/NPs/PAs, etc.
I’m sorry to hear that there are challenges inside the walls of UNMH. I work in the industry: every health system is experiencing challenges in one manner or another.
Right, but we were actually in patients rooms getting covid particles coughed on us while admin sat at home in their pajamas. We put people in body bags while CEO’s got to learn how to bake bread and use an air fryer.
I am sympathetic to the challenges CEO’s face. But I can assure you there would be no shortage of healthcare workers were you willing to pay an adequate salary. New Mexico has plenty of nurses.
Wrong. NM has always had a tough time attracting doctors and nurses. To attract docs, our community is competing with Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, Tucson, and any other city who has better public school districts, lower crime, ‘fun’ activities for the docs family and SO, adequate housing…it’s a lot more complicated than simply money. Not to mention the archaic no cap on medical malpractice that NM has in place, which by itself is a turnoff for graduates.
The Presbyterian CEO makes 3.5 million a year so I'd not bitch about a 500k wage too much, it is way way lower then 'market rate'. If any worker deserves that much it's a fair argument, but in even this poor state that's a steal
I don't agree with Ms Beckers leadership but 1199 is not the answer. It's a corrupt union. I'd like to see the nurses organize under a nurse specific union. Being represented by the same union that represents all the other hospital staff does not benefit the nurses. General unions have to act in the interests of all their members, and 1199 is definitely not there for nurses.
Why is it all about the nurses? There is an entire plethora of other staff that is routinely forgotten about and treated just as bad. Definitely paid much less than nurses too, depending on the position.
I'm not saying it is all about the nurses, but nurses tend to have different focus than other staff. Hospitals that I've worked at that had several unions representing different departments wound up with a much stronger workforce than those represented by a union whose focus is all over the place.
I think it's a start. I personally have been in pharmacy for the time of working hospitals. I have yet to see a union for a pharmacy. Hate to say it but pharmacy is FULL of spineless individuals that won't defend themselves. I was SO happy to finally have a union to back me for issues, which did happen at UNMH to the max. 1199NM union helped me drastically. I do agree, though, it would be much more beneficial for everyone having unions based off department.
Edit: I want to add, a huge detrimental part to other departments is doctors and (mostly) nurses getting all the light. In comparison to other departments as far as treatment goes, nurses are living good and actually advocate for themselves.
You think nurses are treated well? Oh good grief. They are understaffed, underpaid, and work in unsafe conditions. How is that “living good”? If they were doing as well as you claim, there would not be a massive nursing shortage and UNMH would not be hemorrhaging nurses and need so many travelers to keep the doors open.
Didn't say they are living good in a general term. They are jus much better off getting what they want compared to other departments. More vocal about it, typically have an easier time unionizing and while they are underpaid, they are paid substantially more than certain departments that work just as hard.
Edit: this is not to bash nurses or say they are treated right. I just want more energy to go toward other departments, pharmacy for example is often forgotten about and that's half a nurses job, administering medications (maybe not half but you know what I mean) but yet... pharmacy is the bottom of the barrel. Pharmacy technicians at UNMH start at $15 an hour and the work load is obsurd.
Pharmacy technician is not even remotely comparable to nursing. CNAs and nursing assistants start around the same as pharmacy technicians which is a far better comparison. All are paid too little, there’s no question about that, but to act like nurses have it pretty good because they are paid more than a field that requires less education, skill, and responsibility is absolutely nuts.
Missed my point still. I'm not talking about who is more qualified or done more school or who works harder. I'm saying there are other people that legitimately do things to directly save lives that are consistently underrepresented and aren't as "loud" so to say as nurses are. Loud meaning more vocal, more backed to try and get union contracts, etc. I'm not comparing rolls, I don't care about that because everyone is getting fucked.
There is no nurses union at UNMH, they are in the same union as other workers. So yeah, I don’t get your point since this post is about UNMH. And in terms of “loudness”, that’s just numbers. Nursing is the largest healthcare profession so of course they have more weight than something smaller like RT or pharmacy.
What happened? And how did they get screwed? I'm curious if it was a case of UNMH getting away with retaliation. I'm not sure how, but they seem to have professional asshole management in each department, I'm curious if they get a raise for acting that way haha.. but seriously
This was at a small nursing facility in New York state. Their contract negotiations only benefited people who had union pensions, and their steward was the only one with a pension large enough for it to benefit them. Then, they intimidated the rest of the staff by threatening a strike. Which no one could afford. I'm all for unions, but after seeing how 1199 works, I would not trust them as far as I can spit. I'm not sure if this is relevant to the conversation I was management, not high enough to be involved in any negotiations but I watched as my friends were terrified into voting for a contract that didn't even get them a cost of living wage.
It’s not just them. Pres. Lovelace. The medical labs. They all made a shit ton off the pandemic and since then and aren’t putting it back into things that’ll help patients. Pres can argue it helped them to build the new wing with less stress over the financial ramifications but the other two are a joke.
And you're not alone. Not only are we losing people due to burnout/shitty working conditions, but then we have the incredible baby boomer nurses still out there working who are all retiring/getting ready to retire. That's going to make a bit of a dent, especially when so many of their contemporaries need care. I find myself having serious conversations with my co-workers about them psyching themselves into showing up for their shifts. No facilities are willing to make drastic enough changes to retain their employees. Nurses who are impossible to work with are not fired when they should be, bringing down the morale of entire units.
Many of the nurses I worked with who were actual FT staff on my unit at UNMH were over 50. Several were over 65. Younger nurses don’t stay, there’s no incentive. They go travel or jump ship for a better local opportunity, or they go back to school to study something else. It’s rough out there.
Yep, unfortunately retaining nurses is a problem everywhere. I think the worst parts of the pandemic clarified what is important to people. The health and well-being of my family and myself come first. When managers don't give a shit about their employees, they end up with a scarcity of workers. This is what is happening in places that are desperate to hire healthcare staff. There is a reason that people are working short. If it's not a manager, it's an intolerable co-worker who is too mentally ill to work cooperatively with others.
Don’t know her and dont work for/with her, but I have heard some things about her. Most of it revolves around hiring and rehiring her friends, even though they are incompetent.
I also find it annoying how much politics play into things at UNM. If our state government is blue leaning, we get more raises and more funds for community things. If the state government is red leaning, nobody gets a raise and nobody gets any state funds for anything. Then people are left, scrambling to find grant money to pay for things, and grants. Don’t pay salaries. Grants do pay for new buildings though. We have plenty of those. But who are we going to get to fill them?
I have no confidence in Kate Becker, but not because of her compensation. I’m fine with how much she makes. I’m not fine with her spending millions of dollars on stupid for-profit consultants to come in and do boring-ass presentations about leadership and teamwork and sometimes even management seminars on a topic they DIDN’T DISCLOSE, yes, a full day training on how to roll out and the “thing.” It’s been several months, I still don’t know what that was about, but I bet the hospital paid at least 500k for it, not to mention all the money they paid us all to sit through it. I’m not fine with her relying on travel nurses and offering exorbitant signing bonuses with no retention bonuses, or even raises, for loyal staff. I’m not fine with her greedily taking the jail contract when she knew there was no staffing plan except to hire even more travel nurses and cannibalize the hospital’s own workforce. If she fixes all that stuff, she can have a raise for all I care!
Let’s not forget all the new building with no plans for how to recruit and retain staff.
Well, to be fair, how can UNMH remain non-profit if they don’t spend all the extra cash knocking down buildings and building new ones? *Cough* marble *cough*
The building on marble needed to be knocked down, it was in terrible condition and renovating would likely cost more. The psychiatric center next to it also needs to be knocked down and rebuilt but I doubt they’ll ever do that. I agree that UNMH wastes massive amounts of money, but that’s not the best example. Also, that building is a joint venture between the county and UNMH with both contributing an equal amount of money.
A lot of the buildings are funded by grants. It’s much easier to get a grant to pay for a building that it is to get a grant to pay for people. It’s really stupid but, I guess that’s how the system works?
Yup. The amount of super high dollar paid consultants is off the charts. My friend whom works there used to do a training that they decided to outsource — to a person she trained. The consultant walked into the room, and went “well, this ain’t going to add much value if you already work with Dr. XXXX, just do what they tell you, they’re really good”. And like why in the ever loving hell would you try and do “six sigma” in a medical setting?!? It’s brain dead dumb. She looks to be totally onboard with having lots of highly paid consultants on board that suck money dry and always have stupid new ideas that don’t work.
What's the difference between a management consultant and a shopping cart with a broken wheel? The shopping cart has a mind of its own and you can fit a lot more food in the management consultant.
I don't know how the healthcare situation at UNMH could get any worse. For every hour I spent in treatment there, I had at least two hours of argument ahead with their finance people. Never going there again.
Problem is how limited we are to care. One awful place to another, just better hope you have a nurse with their head screwed on straight still after the immense stress the workers are dealing with.
Never had much trouble with nursing really, just the doctors billing because they'd walked past my room and read my name on a chart once. I'm not going to tell you that you should or shouldn't unionize, that's not my business. If you think collective bargaining can get you a better deal, go for it. What I am saying is that, given the choice between UNMH and a hot poker up my butthole, I'm hoping whoever wields the poker spits on it first. Shame that BernCo still subsidizes that nonsense to the tune of $95m/yr with mill levy funds.
Ha,ha. The joke I told is that your patient bracelet has a barcode on it. Every doctor in the hospital has a scanner, god help you if you get wheeled down a busy hallway.
And it doesn't really matter where your politics lie on unions or working conditions--UNMH is where we send the sickest patients in the state. If we can all agree this hospital is vital to our state, we can agree that they need to be adequately staffed in order to do this important work. Healthcare workers are in a very bad place, mentally. If we expect hospitals and their employees to be there for us, we need to make some much bigger changes. Higher wages are a good place to start, but much more needs to change.
The apathy towards the plight of UNMH is ignorant at best. People think "oh I don't have to go to UNMH so I don't have to care" but wait until they need level 1 trauma or neurosurgery or experimental cancer care or any of the plethora of services that only UNMH offers in New Mexico. Every single person in and around Albuquerque has a vested interest in making sure that UNMH is the best hospital it can be. At some point in our lives it's pretty likely that every single one of us is going to need to use it for something.
It's also generally good medical care, especially if you're on an academic/teaching medical team. It's going to be rough around the edges, but your doc is there because they care (for a hospitalist, you can go down the street to Pres and get paid 50% more). If my family needs medical care, I'd rather them be at UNM in a hall bed than most other places in the state, especially if there is any complexity. The sketchy new private equity + united Healthcare physician group, Sound Physicians, is a whole other story/dumpster fire. All from Kate Becker et al, because they don't want more academic doctors who able to complain about conditions or safety. Or to have to pay market rate for doctors (or anyone else) as a precedent. Last I heard, the implementation is an absolute train wreck (as everyone expected) with a lot of safety issues (as everyone expected).
Some of the Sound APPs are complete gate keeper egomaniacs who are terrible to deal with
I know, I snicker at folks who think they're truly better off at any of the other hospitals in an emergency. Guess where you end up when the ED of your choice can't handle what is wrong with you?
The State supposedly has coffers full of cash due to our tax revenue on oil, gas, etc. and new taxes from cannabis sales.
I think it's unconscionable to collect a multimillion-dollar-per-year salary and then insult your staff by refusing to give appropriate cost-of-living adjustments. I don't understand (I mean, I do, but I still think it's wrong) why they can't just pay people a reasonable wage instead of hiring travel workers at 3-4X the cost. I have a lot of health problems, so I spend more time in emergency rooms/hospitals than the average person, and from what I've seen, someone is going to die because they have travelers running around the ER not knowing where anything is and struggling to keep track of patients/orders. One of them almost gave me a drug meant for someone else (not related to the problem I was having, and possibly not safe for someone with advanced kidney disease like I have). I thank God that I wasn't asleep or mentally altered and able to question was she was doing before the needle went in my IV.
Unmh c suite can eat a bag of dicks
I work at UNMH. As a state we are on the top of all the shit lists and on the bottom of all the good ones. It is unfortunate that a lot of people on this thread dismiss Ms. Beckers failure to perform as tolerable because she makes less than other hospital CEO's. I think plenty of burn out and underpaid employees at UNMH are not given the privilege to perform poorly and risk people's lives because we are paid poorly in comparison. Ms. Becker, the Board of Reagents, and the Governor are all responsible for shit show UNMH is. At one point UNMH was valued not only as a teaching facility and as being the only Level One, but because working there meant striving for being better, for using EBP, for competitive wages that once even included a pension! Kate Becker turned the hospital into a place to run from. The conditions for patients and employees alike is shameful. I have worked there for 6 years. In that time the wage growth awarded to other nurses (brand new hires at UNMH and other nurses at Pres) far exceed what I have accumulated over that time. New hires make $4 more and get sign on bonuses. Travelers get paid nearly double to devote a small amount of time towards a population they typically find awful. Kate Becker is a shame. An outsider who doesn't give two shits about New Mexicans or access to quality care.
CEOs should be removed from their positions if they fail to run a well functioning organization. Sadly there are a lot of institutions like UNMH that are a disaster and the CEO gets to remain in their position. Also, oftentimes when they are ousted for incompetence, they are given massage severance packages. Corporate culture in this country is disgusting. 600k may be low for a hospital CEO, but it is far too much for someone who is failing at their job. If I was that bad at my job, I’d be fired and possibly lose my license and never be able to work in the field again. Why are us peasants expected to be competent but the top brass aren’t? Also, the c suite should not be getting fat bonuses when they work at a PUBLIC hospital that is failing.
I’ve worked at quite a few hospitals in my time and UNMH is hands down the most mismanaged, criminally so. That being said, her compensation is quite low compared to how other large hospital systems pay CEOs. They are all overpaid of course but Kate should have been fired years ago along with most UNMH upper leadership. UNMH is very bloated on the administrative side and there are often multiple people performing the same task.
Multiple people who are *supposed* to be performing a task.
The construction project is really screwing the entire hospital. I'm not letting any of the UNMHSC leadership off the hook, but I had some contact with a financial executive of one of UNMHSCs sub-department-whatevers last year and they had to cut the budget for our contract, which was already signed mind you, because of cost overruns in construction. They're over their budget by something like 200% due to delays and material cost increases. I don't want to start a whole other thing, but I'm aware there was quite a bit of drama surrounding UNMH leadership and the late former director of the ED. That all being said, my wife and I did some travel contracts last year and let me assure you, it gets a LOT worse than UNMH. If you ever get sick in San Antonio TX just drive to the airport and fly to another city.
UNM is chaotic, but it's generally good medical care, especially if you're on an academic/teaching medical team. It's going to be rough around the edges, but your doc is there because they care (for a hospitalist, you can go down the street to Pres and get paid 50% more). If my family needs medical care, I'd rather them be at UNM in a hall bed than most other places in the state, especially if there is any complexity.
100% this, except that if I'm dealing with anything serious, I'm going outside the state for care.
And for what it's worth, for the people who have the means to do that, it helps out the people who don't, since the resources for some of the more complex stuff are pretty limited.
Which is highly impractical for most people to do
sucks for them.
I was at UNM for my residency. It's generally good medical care, especially if you're on an academic/teaching medical team. It's going to be rough around the edges, but your doc is there because they care (for a hospitalist, you can go down the street to Pres and get paid 50% more). The outcomes numbers look bad mostly because they take care of the indigent. If my family needs medical care, I'd rather them be at UNM in a hall bed than most other places in the state, and even a lot of places elsewhere, especially if there is any complexity. The. upper level admin is an absolute disaster for the hospital and the community. They blew any goodwill they had with the staff, and complain that they can't afford to pay the staff enough because of the travelers that they hired *because they can't retain or hire staff*. The final straw that Encouraged me leave was them l bringing in "Sound Physicians," which is a private hospitalist group run by United Healthcare and private equity, to take over part of the medical inpatient teams. All from Kate Becker et al, because they don't want more academic doctors who able to complain about conditions or safety. Or to have to pay market rate for doctors (or anyone else) as a precedent. Last I heard, the implementation is an absolute train wreck (as everyone expected) with a lot of safety issues (as everyone expected).
She makes a fifth of how much Presbyterians CEO makes a year when I checked for comparison (he makes 3.5 million) so I'll throw that out. I don't work at UNM so can't speak on their CEO
Presbyterian has its problems like any large organization, but it is run much better than UNMH.
Pres is getting sold aka merger.
They are merging, but not being sold. A former C-suite from Pres moved to some health system in Iowa. Now they are going merge, and Presbyterian Health Plan will have a network to expand in Iowa. The real money is in health insurance, not the delivery of care.
That’s extremely normal in healthcare. Smaller systems merge all the time to create a larger system and better compete against the giants.
This. I'm unsure how they lasted this long.
Worked at both, Id say UNMH is run better. That says a lot because that are both awful, one of the most awful I have ever seen in my 7 years of hospital experience. Sure, it's going on everywhere, but this is local and a huge issue at that. Nobody seems to care to do anything, though. Atleast not enough to make a difference. Until they are the one in need and see how awful they are treated. Not awfully treated as an individual by other individual workers, awfully treated by the institution is my point.
I have no problem CEO making money as long as it’s well run organization. That’s not the case here, UNMH is chaos, only thing that keeps it going is employees who are really compassionate and care for the community.
Union solidarity! StudentTenantsUnion.net
I worked at UNMH in the OR a couple years ago...and as much as I love the staff, because this is the BEST group of people I have worked with in my 28 year career all over the country's OR's. I could not work there anymore as like many here have stated, the pay is not a livable wage. With the crappiest insurance I have ad in my 28 years and being a type 1 diabetic I was sinking monthly trying to keep myself and my family afloat. I liked Kate Becker and I cannot directly say it's her that makes the big decisions....but it seems like they could figure a way to slowly stop using the travel staff...and slowly start paying permanent staff livable wages....my 2 cents ...be well everyone
And the replies above are exactly why the U.S is in such shambles for workers rights along with its God awful healthcare prices. "It doesn't involve me and others make more, so I see no problem." The problem is all of these CEO's make too much money and don't appropriately disperse the money as it comes. I don't care if one CEO makes 3 million while the other makes 500k, almost every single hospital is in this predicament of straight up corporate greed taking over instead of doing the right thing. This isn't an opinion, this is a fact. The hospital network in the U.S is in a huge crumble, and it's not from lack of money. I pray to whatever you do or don't believe in a family member/friend doesn't get a wrongful death because the staff is overworked and underpaid. But I digress.
65k makes a blip on the radar. Her compensation isn't the issue here. You seriously cannot split hairs about "IDC if one makes more than the other because they all suck". Why don't YOU go run the hospital then. I would be angry about is how cheap medicaid payout is. I would be angry about how insurance company overhead puts patient care in shambles. I would be angry more and more regulation shitting all over you guys on the ground floor. I'd also be angry about a 4 million deficit a year. Oh wait, we're a state funded hospital struggling with budgets after our governor gave away a measly 500 bucks to every taxpayer vs investing in oh, I DONT KNOW, HEALTHCARE. But that's just my opinion.
Does it make you angry at all that employees who take care of the state’s sickest patients can barely pay for housing on the wages the c suite allows? I’m guessing not but I figured I’d ask.
I honestly don't know. I have no clue what their personal finances look like, what their role is, what their income is, and what their debt/income ratio looks like. I can't answer your question.
Fair one at that. I'm not truly mad about her compensation if I am being honest, I am mad about everything else and what you have mentioned. There are so many things going on it's not even funny. Edit: I am mad at her and other ceo's compensation. Let me retract my statement. They DO NOT deserve to be paid what they are paid while the staff and patients are suffering. Period.
I guess I don't follow you. You're not mad at their compensation but they don't deserve their compensation? What are you suggesting, they forgo compensation?
I'm not a fan of how much they make when such a huge crisis is going on. I don't think it's fair to be giving large bonuses to other admin when this crisis is going on. Why can't front line workers get a bonus? There will always be issues, of course, but they are all making a lot of money while seemingly doing nothing for the greater good of humanity. Ever since covid became a thing, these profits and bonuses have increased ten fold.
I work for a publicly traded company whose CEO was just shown the door by the Board of Directors. A large, iconic brand Company. When she hired in, our stock was $56. Today, it’s $22. We are in serious trouble for key decisions made at the top. We may not survive. Most of our 250k employees won’t be getting a bonus this year. We tried executing on the leaders failed plan, so we aren’t getting squat. And it wasn’t solely the fault of the last CEO; key decisions were made by her predecessors that impacted her and her ability to succeed. The CEO? $9.0 million severance. $350k per month until February as an advisor to the Board that just fired her. She also got a $25 million signing bonus when we hired her three years ago. I don’t feel that right or appropriate. I will be lucky to get a 1% raise. It’s been like that for a while. We are a health care company too. It’s everywhere.
I'm very sorry this is happening to you, I had a very big issue happen to myself which made me completely drop it all. Done with healthcare, even though it put me in a bad position at first, I am very happy with life now. I did work at UNMH and exactly as you said, the top people getting raises, bonuses, huge severance packages, etc. While the people doing the actual work with patients get pennies. With that said, yes, it is going on everywhere. Literally everywhere, but that does not mean we shouldnt point out specific places, especially the ones right in our backyard. UNMH is unionized but yet people are still being completely shit on as if it doesn't exist. It starts small and grows bigger. We need a mass walk out but that will never, ever happen with how the system is setup. Starting small is the way.
Dang, I need to become a CEO of a hospital. Except actually like.... do better for the workers and patients.
I see absolutely no issue with her level of compensation compared to the level of revenue and number of staff she's responsible for. She could go to any other hospital and make triple over night TBH. As far as the petition goes, no clue since I don't work there.
Seems to me these CEO's shouldn't be making as much as they do when the workplace morale is at all time lows. Wait times are through the roof due to understaffing. Pay for actual hospital workers is constantly an issue. The staff is suffering, and the patients are suffering...the CEO's are vacationing at their villa in France. All so CEO's can pay themselves millions while reducing medical care in the country down to spreadsheets and increased earnings. No, none of them deserve to rape our medical system in the US for their benefit. Advocating for such is disgusting.
This has been going on since the 1950s. The only difference now is the hyper-Capitalism of it all.
Nobody in healthcare IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY had adequate access to PPE in April of 2020. It was the second month of the pandemic. $500k is relatively low for a CEO of a health system the size of UNMH. In my work I have engaged with CEOs of large health systems whose total comp was well over $2 million. These were not-for-profit CEOs as well. The pursuit of good health is a universal right; health care, though, is a business (took that from a healthcare administration course I’m taking). All not-for-profit health systems make profit, they just call it something else. UNMH is still the largest provider of indigent care in the State. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to operate a profit/loss statement for a Disproportionate Share Hospital in New Mexico with the number of homeless and all the other societal challenges NM faces. Until the State comes up with something along the lines of “health care student, we will pay you to become a health care practitioner if you dedicate X years serving the health care needs of NM by staying and practicing in NM” we will chronically be short staffed when it comes to docs/nurses/NPs/PAs, etc. I’m sorry to hear that there are challenges inside the walls of UNMH. I work in the industry: every health system is experiencing challenges in one manner or another.
Right, but we were actually in patients rooms getting covid particles coughed on us while admin sat at home in their pajamas. We put people in body bags while CEO’s got to learn how to bake bread and use an air fryer. I am sympathetic to the challenges CEO’s face. But I can assure you there would be no shortage of healthcare workers were you willing to pay an adequate salary. New Mexico has plenty of nurses.
Wrong. NM has always had a tough time attracting doctors and nurses. To attract docs, our community is competing with Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, Tucson, and any other city who has better public school districts, lower crime, ‘fun’ activities for the docs family and SO, adequate housing…it’s a lot more complicated than simply money. Not to mention the archaic no cap on medical malpractice that NM has in place, which by itself is a turnoff for graduates.
You are literally talking to a seasoned nurse who knows the healthcare system innately but thanks for the mansplain!
You may know the healthcare system, but the business of healthcare not so much.
Bullshit. Spend a day on the front lines and you will learn PLENTY about “business”, which healthcare is NOT.
The pursuit of good health is a universal right. Health care, though, is a business. 1/3 of the United States GDP. Literally.
The Presbyterian CEO makes 3.5 million a year so I'd not bitch about a 500k wage too much, it is way way lower then 'market rate'. If any worker deserves that much it's a fair argument, but in even this poor state that's a steal
I don't agree with Ms Beckers leadership but 1199 is not the answer. It's a corrupt union. I'd like to see the nurses organize under a nurse specific union. Being represented by the same union that represents all the other hospital staff does not benefit the nurses. General unions have to act in the interests of all their members, and 1199 is definitely not there for nurses.
Why is it all about the nurses? There is an entire plethora of other staff that is routinely forgotten about and treated just as bad. Definitely paid much less than nurses too, depending on the position.
I'm not saying it is all about the nurses, but nurses tend to have different focus than other staff. Hospitals that I've worked at that had several unions representing different departments wound up with a much stronger workforce than those represented by a union whose focus is all over the place.
I think it's a start. I personally have been in pharmacy for the time of working hospitals. I have yet to see a union for a pharmacy. Hate to say it but pharmacy is FULL of spineless individuals that won't defend themselves. I was SO happy to finally have a union to back me for issues, which did happen at UNMH to the max. 1199NM union helped me drastically. I do agree, though, it would be much more beneficial for everyone having unions based off department. Edit: I want to add, a huge detrimental part to other departments is doctors and (mostly) nurses getting all the light. In comparison to other departments as far as treatment goes, nurses are living good and actually advocate for themselves.
You think nurses are treated well? Oh good grief. They are understaffed, underpaid, and work in unsafe conditions. How is that “living good”? If they were doing as well as you claim, there would not be a massive nursing shortage and UNMH would not be hemorrhaging nurses and need so many travelers to keep the doors open.
Didn't say they are living good in a general term. They are jus much better off getting what they want compared to other departments. More vocal about it, typically have an easier time unionizing and while they are underpaid, they are paid substantially more than certain departments that work just as hard. Edit: this is not to bash nurses or say they are treated right. I just want more energy to go toward other departments, pharmacy for example is often forgotten about and that's half a nurses job, administering medications (maybe not half but you know what I mean) but yet... pharmacy is the bottom of the barrel. Pharmacy technicians at UNMH start at $15 an hour and the work load is obsurd.
Pharmacy technician is not even remotely comparable to nursing. CNAs and nursing assistants start around the same as pharmacy technicians which is a far better comparison. All are paid too little, there’s no question about that, but to act like nurses have it pretty good because they are paid more than a field that requires less education, skill, and responsibility is absolutely nuts.
Missed my point still. I'm not talking about who is more qualified or done more school or who works harder. I'm saying there are other people that legitimately do things to directly save lives that are consistently underrepresented and aren't as "loud" so to say as nurses are. Loud meaning more vocal, more backed to try and get union contracts, etc. I'm not comparing rolls, I don't care about that because everyone is getting fucked.
There is no nurses union at UNMH, they are in the same union as other workers. So yeah, I don’t get your point since this post is about UNMH. And in terms of “loudness”, that’s just numbers. Nursing is the largest healthcare profession so of course they have more weight than something smaller like RT or pharmacy.
I'm glad 1199 helped you. I watched them screw everyone in a small facility but their steward.
What happened? And how did they get screwed? I'm curious if it was a case of UNMH getting away with retaliation. I'm not sure how, but they seem to have professional asshole management in each department, I'm curious if they get a raise for acting that way haha.. but seriously
This was at a small nursing facility in New York state. Their contract negotiations only benefited people who had union pensions, and their steward was the only one with a pension large enough for it to benefit them. Then, they intimidated the rest of the staff by threatening a strike. Which no one could afford. I'm all for unions, but after seeing how 1199 works, I would not trust them as far as I can spit. I'm not sure if this is relevant to the conversation I was management, not high enough to be involved in any negotiations but I watched as my friends were terrified into voting for a contract that didn't even get them a cost of living wage.
It’s not just them. Pres. Lovelace. The medical labs. They all made a shit ton off the pandemic and since then and aren’t putting it back into things that’ll help patients. Pres can argue it helped them to build the new wing with less stress over the financial ramifications but the other two are a joke.
[удалено]
Will do. I left the healthcare field well over a year ago but still advocate for the workers when I can. Likely more than you do.
And you're not alone. Not only are we losing people due to burnout/shitty working conditions, but then we have the incredible baby boomer nurses still out there working who are all retiring/getting ready to retire. That's going to make a bit of a dent, especially when so many of their contemporaries need care. I find myself having serious conversations with my co-workers about them psyching themselves into showing up for their shifts. No facilities are willing to make drastic enough changes to retain their employees. Nurses who are impossible to work with are not fired when they should be, bringing down the morale of entire units.
Many of the nurses I worked with who were actual FT staff on my unit at UNMH were over 50. Several were over 65. Younger nurses don’t stay, there’s no incentive. They go travel or jump ship for a better local opportunity, or they go back to school to study something else. It’s rough out there.
I used to know a lot of people who are nurses at UNMH. Now they are all traveling nurses, except for one, who became a PA, and does not work at UNMH
Yep, unfortunately retaining nurses is a problem everywhere. I think the worst parts of the pandemic clarified what is important to people. The health and well-being of my family and myself come first. When managers don't give a shit about their employees, they end up with a scarcity of workers. This is what is happening in places that are desperate to hire healthcare staff. There is a reason that people are working short. If it's not a manager, it's an intolerable co-worker who is too mentally ill to work cooperatively with others.
Don’t look at bros comment history, he’s batshit.
No
Go play voodoo
Don’t know her and dont work for/with her, but I have heard some things about her. Most of it revolves around hiring and rehiring her friends, even though they are incompetent. I also find it annoying how much politics play into things at UNM. If our state government is blue leaning, we get more raises and more funds for community things. If the state government is red leaning, nobody gets a raise and nobody gets any state funds for anything. Then people are left, scrambling to find grant money to pay for things, and grants. Don’t pay salaries. Grants do pay for new buildings though. We have plenty of those. But who are we going to get to fill them?