PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Eric Lewis will receive a 10 percent pay raise — to $176,000 annually — if the seven hospital commissioners approve a recommendation from the human resources committee.

Lewis now earns $160,000 per year.

The $16,000 raise would be Lewis’ first since he was promoted from chief financial officer to interim CEO in December 2006.

Lewis, who became the permanent CEO in January 2007, has the same retirement and health care benefits as other hospital employees.

“One of the responsibilities of this board is to evaluate and pay Mr. Lewis,” said Dr. John Miles, board chairman, in Wednesday night’s commissioners’ meeting at the Port Angeles hospital.

“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and finally, we assigned it to the HR committee, of which [Commissioner] Jean Hordyk is the chairman.”

Hordyk said the committee compared Lewis’ salary to the CEO of Jefferson Healthcare and top administrators at similar-sized hospitals in the region.

“He’s the lowest,” Hordyk said.

Commissioners will consider approving the raise at their next board meeting June 20.

“We discussed this quite a bit, and we are concluding that we would like to make a recommendation to the board that we increase our CEO’s salary by 10 percent,” Hordyk said.

Comparisons

By comparison, Jefferson Healthcare CEO Mike Glenn earns $225,000 per year.

Whidbey General Hospital CEO Tom Tomasino’s salary is $230,000.

“Our CEO is way below that, and he’s got a much bigger job than both of those two entities,” Commissioner Jim Leskinovitch said.

“The other thing is Eric has been reticent in having salary increases because of the economic conditions our hospital is facing,” Leskinovitch continued.

“He’s probably about as magnanimous as a person I’ve seen that way.

“But we can’t continue to take that kindness from him, so we’re making just a small step in rectifying that.”

Commissioner John Nutter added: “I think it’s long overdue.

“Even if the raise goes through as proposed, that still leaves him $50,000 below comparable and smaller hospitals,” Nutter said.

Lewis did not comment on the proposed raise.

An OMC survey of Northwest hospitals found that the median CEO salary for hospitals with $75 million to $200 million in operating expenses is $300,281.

OMC budgeted $140.9 million in operating expenses this year.

Median salary

The survey found that the median salary for CEOs of hospitals with 375 to 1,200 full-time employees is $251,000.

OMC has 1,100 employees working at its 80-bed hospital and satellite clinics.

Jefferson Healthcare and Forks Community Hospital are critical-access hospitals, meaning they have 25 beds or fewer.

Forks Community Hospital co-administrators Camille Scott and John Sherrett earn per-diem wages, Sherrett said.

He said the rates vary and would not be comparable to a CEO’s salary.

Since Lewis became CEO, union-represented nurses received total raises of more than 20 percent through longevity steps and annual pay increases, according to a memo provided by OMC communications staff.

“Considering the above, and the fact that Eric Lewis is a proven administrator with tremendous financial acumen, excellent leadership skills and a vision for the future of health care in our community, he should receive a 10 percent raise,” the memo concluded.

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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.