Posted by Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
Correct me if I am wrong, but as I recall the position of Chief Executive Officer and President of the Niagara Health System was once held by one individual.
Incoming Niagara Health System president Suzanne Johnston
Now we have a CEO, in the name of Kevin Smith, making more than $650,000 in salary and benefits, and the Niagara Health System – the more than decade old body responsible for operating Niagara, Ontario’s amalgamated hospital services, has announced this June 3rd that it has hired another person, in the name of Suzanne Johnston, to serve as NHS president.
You can safely bet any worldly possessions you have on the NHS’s new and separate president’s position commanding a salary of at least a couple of hundred thousands of dollars since those seem to be rates senior hospital administrators across the province and country are awarded these days. And one can only imagine how much more frontline health care services all this extra senior executive baggage would pay for.
According to a media release circulated by the NHS this June 3rd, Johnston “is currently vice-president, clinical programs and chief nursing officer at Northern Health Authority in British Columbia, an organization serving northern B.C. with over 24 hospitals, 14 long-term care facilities, and community services provides to diverse populations, including aboriginal Canadians.”
The media release goes on to explain that “in the role of President, Dr. Johnston will be the local leadership presence of the hospital system and will report to the NHS Board and to Dr. Smith in his capacity as CEO. She intends to relocate to the Niagara Region at the end of the summer.”
Now let me make this clear. Johnston may very well be a very fine hospital administrator. This is not about her as an individual.
What this is about is a hospital system in this region that has a deficit totaling millions of dollars and one that is continuing to follow through on a long-term plan for reducing or closing down services at what is left of Niagara’s older community hospitals and consolidating more of those services at its new super hospital in west St. Catharines in Niagara’s north end.
Earlier in the NHS’s history, one Debbie Sevenpifer – some of you out there may remember her – held both the CEO and president posts for the health system for an annual salary and benefits package ranging between $300,000 and $400,000. Some of you out there might also say; ‘but look at what a screwed up mess the NHS was during her tenure,’ to which one could make a strong case that the mess may have had more to do with the individual and some of the screwballs on her board than it did with the fact that the CEO and president positions were under the command of one person.
Some may also argue that CEO Smith needs another person doing the president’s job because he also remains the CEO of the St. Joseph’s hospital in the Hamilton area. That may be so, but Smith is still CEO for fewer hospitals now than Sevenpifer inherited before half of them were gutted over the past five or six years.
What is more, Smith also has an NHS board with a chair – a board and chair we are led to believe by the hospital system is a very good one – which he can access for direction on how best to move forward with hospital operations.
So why do we need to use scarce public funds to create yet another high-priced executive position? Don’t know about you, but I’d rather see the money go to more people scrubbing and cleaning our hospitals free of potentially life-threatening germs.
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Niagara At Large 
This NHS is getting to be NO HOSPITAL SERVICES but one hell of a big administrative mess costing hundreds of millions of dollars while the Health System goes down the drain and into the realm of Privatization. Is this deliberate on the part of the Administration or of the Ontario Government and if so then the blame is in the accountability factor where senior management are not doing their jobs or maybe they are just doing as they are told??????
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When they originally brought Sue Matthews to the NHS her starting title was Vice President, Patient Services at a “STARTING SALARY” of over $220,000 plus Taxable Benefits. So I can only imagine this”New” person. Suzanne Johnston’s salary will be at least the same amount or even more. “PROBABLY MORE”.
There seems to be pattern of entitlement or “EMPIRE BUILDING” associated with the HEALTH CARE SYSTEM in this province and this surely will bankrupt the System and cause the DREAM of TOMMY DOUGLAS and many Health Professionals to go down the proverbial Toilet and back under the control of the “FOR PROFIT” gangsters, the Health Care providers and Insurance Companies as in the U.S.A.
When the Conservatives under Mulroney and Company “Mortgaged” Canada by signing the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.A. he literally sold Canada’s :Sovereignty and Health Accord to the American Corporate Loan Sharks.
And we now have “another Conservative” PRIME MINISTER who has and is expanding the sell out of Canada to the total Universal Community , including China.
God Bless Canada……No!! No!!! No!!! No!!! God “HELP” the Canadian people….for HARPER and his MERCENARIES do know what they are doing in the BIBLICAL SENSE….The BOOK of REVELATIONS seems to be evolving rapidly????
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When I first started working for what became the NHS, 45 years ago, we had an Administrator who actually administrated as opposed to delegating his/her responsibilities to exorbitantly expensive private organizations who often didn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. I recall a company hired at considerable expense who was SUPPOSED to tell the hospital how to economize & maximize the use of funds & staff. They went bankrupt within weeks of being paid! We had a Director of Nursing who actually was a nurse & was effective. Everything worked well. Patients were satisfied.
Now there are layers of bureaucracy & people with suits or dresses & high heels. If someone doesn’t have blood or barf on their shoes, get rid of them because they aren’t productive. A clip board is a sure sign of a useless executive.
I recall one of these so called administrators coming around one day with a bunch of new time consuming forms for nurses to fill out (no doubt to cover the asses of the higher ups) such as “The falls risk, assessment and prevention tool” or some such nonsense. HELLO! If someone is 90, has one legs, is confused & sedated they are a falls risk. OMG, better fill out a ridiculous form to tell us that so that it takes time away from actual nursing care.
When the “executives” brought it around I vehemently expressed my opinion. My mother was in the hospital for about 2 hours, on death’s door & spent her last hour answering similar stupid questions while I was unaware & not notified of her condition. The staff knew her bowels moved that day, she had family support & had a dog. Then she died with no family present even though I was working 2 floors below her. God forbid the paperwork wasn’t done!!!!!!!!!!! In the final analysis, how did those stupid questions help anyone, most of all her? They sure as hell didn’t help her family!
Get rid of the highly paid suits & hire REAL staff. It is telling that many board members & those hired have experience & training in finance. Even with that they fail miserably in handling hospital costs. People are not products on which profits can be made.
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C’mon Joseph… Don’t get your blood pressure perturbed! Blaming the Conservatives for everything is NOT the answer, nor is it considerate to label them as the engineers of our own earthly destruction, in the literal Biblical sense. It is a global economy, and these events like NAFTA would’ve evolved no matter who was in government. As in the U.S., where the strength and influence is the greatest, governments are not much more than overseers and spokespeople, who lend lip-service for the military-industrial hierarchy. Where the money is, the wheels turn, and we commoners can do well to be thankful for another day in a still relatively free country, where the sun shines on us favourable in many ways only dreamed of in certain disadvantaged parts of the world. We do have a sense of stability in Canada, and I still believe (sorry) that PM Harper and his mercenaries (public servants all) are mainly responsible for that, both in image and practical legislation.
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Why are we wasting medical training on administrators?
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Linda
You are so absolutely right as I have watched the Sunshine list pertaining to the NHS grow over the past decade……. I find in 2002 there were but one or two RNs making over $100,000 a year plus perks …in the past few years that list has grown to become a whose who status of the NHS. When I found a couple of RNs making over $200,000 I asked the ONA and was told it is overtime???? My response OVERTIME??? when qualified RNs are being LAID OFF???? The ONA did not like my inferences.
On the Administration side it is a sickening mess of Kings and Queens with fewer and fewer common blue collared workers (Cleaners)….I have had two operations lately one in Hamilton the other in Toronto and I buried a tenant who was treated (?) for cancer in Welland……….. and In my opinion I truly believe he should be alive today. I watched him die….
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