UMC set to pick third CEO in a year

University Medical Center officials on Friday are poised to install their third chief executive in less than a year as the public hospital’s governing board meets to discuss a successor to Larry Barnard, who is taking a similar position in the private sector.

The UMC governing board meets at 9 a.m. to discuss promoting Chief Operating Officer Mason VanHouweling into the post Barnard vacates at the end of the month. Barnard is leaving to become CEO at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals — San Martin campus, a division of Dignity Health.

The UMC governing board earlier this year studied how to compensate Barnard appropriately, but layoffs were being planned, prompting a delay offering Barnard a raise and contract. Hundreds of positions were eliminated from the UMC system through layoffs and attrition from April until August.

VanHouweling has a skill set similar to the widely praised Barnard and can continue a renaissance taking place at UMC, hospital Chief of Staff Dr. Dale Carrison said Thursday. If VanHouweling is named interim CEO, the UMC board and county commissioners have another opportunity to come up with a compensation package to keep a talented executive in place to continue the work Barnard started, Carrison said.

VanHouweling was one of the executives hired by Barnard, Carrison said, and that team is looking to offer new services, cut expenses and provide quality patient care.

Commissioner Lawrence Weekly earlier this week said Clark County could not offer any hospital CEO “$400,000 to $500,000” because UMC is public, not private. Commissioner Steve Sisolak echoed those thoughts Thursday, saying there are limits to what the county can do.

“I for one am not interested in getting into a bidding war with the private sector because that’s not a competition we can win,” Sisolak said.

Compensation for the head of UMC should be in line with other similar county executives, such as the county manager or airport director, and other public hospitals nationwide, Sisolak said.

In 2013, professors with the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston studied the compensation of the heads of U.S. nonprofit hospitals, and they found those executives earned an average of almost $600,000 a year. The research, published in October 2013 in JAMA Internal Medicine, showed chief executive officers overseeing larger, urban teaching institutions had a median salary of more than $1.66 million.

At UMC in January, then-Chief Operating Officer Barnard succeeded Brian Brannman, now vice president of operations for Dignity Health Nevada and CEO of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals — Sienna campus. Brannman directed UMC from August 2012 after taking over for Kathy Silver, who retired after a long career in health care.

Brannman is the designated successor to Rod Davis, senior vice president of operations for Dignity Health Nevada, and is expected to be named to the role when Davis retires this month.

In January 2007, Silver was named acting CEO after one of the worst scandals in the county hospital’s history. Silver took over after the firing of former UMC CEO Lacy Thomas because of irregularities involving UMC financing.

Thomas was indicted in 2008, accused of mismanaging the hospital’s money by awarding $10 million in contracts to friends and associates of his from Chicago. The case against Thomas, who has denied all the charges, is still pending before Clark County District Court Judge Michael Villani. A hearing is scheduled to consider a motion to dismiss in January, and the trial is scheduled for March.

Contact Steven Moore at 702-380-4563 or smoore@reviewjournal.com.