UCI Turns to Beagles for Study; Analyst Talks Healthcare
Competition for senior talent is leading healthcare institutions to dole out the money to hook their executives, a new study shows.
Witt/Kieffer, an Oak Brook, Ill.-based health executive search firm with an Irvine office, reported that healthcare system chief executives earned an average of $318,000 in base compensation last year. The figure is from Witt/Kieffer’s 2000 healthcare executive compensation study, which reported on 445 senior placements the firm made last year.
By contrast, Witt/Kieffer reported that physician chief executives earned an average base compensation of $302,000, followed by physician executives at $241,620; medical education chief executives at $225,750 and hospital chief executives at $217,318.
Moving also pays off, according to Witt/Kieffer. Healthcare system chief executives receive a 29% average bonus and a 31% average salary increase for relocating. Physician chief executives receive a 26% average bonus and a 34% average salary increase when accepting a new job somewhere else.
“I don’t have hard data, but I think you’re seeing the same kind of thing in Orange County and Southern California,” said Richard Swan, a vice president in Witt/Kieffer’s Irvine office. “The environment is competitive.”
Swan noted that healthcare executives who already are in Southern California tend to look positively at other opportunities within the region. When it comes to recruiting outside, however, “there is trepidation” because of housing “sticker shock,” he said. Average home prices in OC have hovered around $300,000 in recent months.
“In this market, you pay a premium because of the housing costs,” Swan said.
But health enterprises are willing to pay the price to find executives who have solid track records, particularly when it comes to the level of sophistication about managed care, according to Swan. “They’re not willing to gamble.”
UCI Going to the Dogs
The University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine received another $2 million research grant, this time from the National Institute on Aging. This time, a research team will study the brain more closely as it ages and look for early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
The study comes with a twist, however,researchers will conduct it on 10-year-old beagles. Specifically, UCI researcher Lydia Su and colleagues will examine whether diet and behavioral stimulation play any role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Among other things, the group will use magnetic resonance imaging to find molecular and microscopic indicators of dementia in the beagles.
“Nobody knows what causes Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias, but research has pointed to antioxidants in the diet and a mentally stimulating environments as two factors that help prevent the disease,” Su said. “It’s possible that this and other studies may show us ways that diet and environment can be used to help prevent Alzheimer’s from occurring and maybe even treat the disease.”
Analyst Talks Healthcare Costs
Sheryl Skolnick, managing director of Fulcrum Global Partners, New York, is set to discuss “Drivers of Healthcare Costs” at the Sept. 13 meeting of the Orange County Employee Benefits Council. The meeting is scheduled at the Irvine Marriott.
Skolnick’s background includes serving as a managing director at Robertson Stephens before going to Fulcrum Global Partners, a fairly new institutional brokerage firm. She is scheduled to talk about implications of rising healthcare costs, the patients’ bill of rights and the role that technology will play in the healthcare industry. More information: (714) 573-8605.
Bits and Pieces:
TriZetto Group Inc., Newport Beach, signed an application services provider contract with Altius Health Plans Inc., South Jordan, Utah. TriZetto said it expects the contract to generate approximately $100 million in revenue over a seven-year term NeoTherapeutics Inc., Irvine, presented data showing that its Neotrofin compound showed that brain stem cells increased 32% in laboratory mice treated with the compound. NeoTherapeutics Chief Executive Alvin Glasky presented the results at a neurological disorder conference I-Flow Corp., Lake Forest, said a clinical study confirmed the efficacy of its pain management system for post-operative analgesia. The study was conducted at the University of Iowa’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Memorial Health Services, which has three OC hospitals, won an innovation award from the American Hospital Association’s Hospitals & Health Networks journal. Long Beach-based Memorial received its award for a patient emergency card that uses “smart card” technology Construction has kicked off on a campus renovation project at Casa Colina, a rehabilitation hospital in Pomona. GKK Healthcare, an Irvine architectural firm, is designing the project Atairgin Technologies Inc., Irvine, reported that it completed patient enrollment for its nationwide clinical trial designed to evaluate its diagnostic marker for ovarian cancer … Dr. Marnie Baker, a pediatric resident at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Orange, was featured in an episode of “Medical Diary,” a Discovery Channel documentary series.