Nurses expected to approve pay increase

Registered nurses at Empire Health Services are voting on a pay increase this week that should ease a widening wage disparity with Sacred Heart Medical Center.

The proposal – affecting about 900 nurses at Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital and Medical Center – was negotiated by Empire management and SEIU 1199NW, the union representing nurses. It is expected to pass.

The annual cost to Empire totals about $3.6 million, said spokeswoman Christine Varela.

“It’s a good move for the hospital and the nurses,” she said.

The proposal was initiated by Empire management, which has been trying to return the hospital to a solid financial position while stemming the loss of nurses to better paying jobs at other hospitals.

Some nurses at Deaconess are earning about $10 less an hour than nurses with similar experience at Sacred Heart. The differences are partly due to a step scale that capped pay for the most experienced nurses, and an across-the-board 9 percent wage rollback enacted several years ago. While the wage cut has been restored, pay has continued to lag.

Empire has ambitious quality and financial goals that can only be met by attracting and keeping good employees with competitive pay, hospital managers have said.

SEIU secretary Chris Barton said that if the proposal passes, some of the most experienced nurses will get pay raises of $4 an hour or more. Less experienced nurses, she said, also will earn more money, though not as much.

“It is a very significant proposal and one that we think is fantastic for our members,” Barton said.

Some of the details of the proposal have been kept mum as the sides negotiated. Another pay raise negotiation is scheduled for the fall.

The pay issues come at a sensitive time for nonprofit Empire.

This week’s vote follows disclosure that Empire CEO Jeff Nelson earned $690,000 for 2005, according to the organization’s most recent tax filings. The Spokesman-Review reported that news Sunday, and several nurses and other employees contacted the newspaper Monday to question why he is among the state’s highest-paid hospital administrators, and they aren’t keeping pace with competitor’s wages.

Empire has hired a hospital broker to find outside investors – perhaps even a buyer – in an effort to raise money to fund improvements.

Empire’s board of directors has solicited dozens of proposals, though describes the effort as in its beginning stages.

The organization has returned to profitability after several years of losses, including a $35 million hole in 2004.

Empire earned a profit of between $4 million and $5 million last year, and is expected to top that in 2007.