Medical Center makes changes to its compensation system

Photo by Dan Addison

By Brevy Cannon

The U.Va. Medical Center announced changes to compensation on March 8 that will benefit a majority of its employees.

The Medical Center’s compensation program is both performance-driven and market-based. Following a recent market survey, the Medical Center recognized that some adjustments to compensation were necessary to bring them into line with other medical centers in the region.

“The Medical Center is committed to becoming a national leader in all areas of operations and this very much includes how we recruit, train and compensate employees,” said R. Edward Howell, vice-president and CEO of the Medical Center.

“We are committed to having the very best people here at UVa to fulfill our missions of patient care, education and research.”

Current changes made to the compensation system include an increase in shift differential pay of between 35 cents per hour and $1 per hour for many positions that work evening, night and weekend shifts. In addition the current system of 31 different pay rates for employees to be on call is being simplified to just two rates — $4 per hour or $2.50 per hour.

Also, all nurses who work in in-patient and procedure areas and who are Clinician I through Clinician IV on the clinical ladder will receive a 35 cent per hour increase. Some nurses will receive an additional market-based increase based on a review of their clinical experience. Other positions will also see pay increases to bring them into line with current market conditions.

Similar to the university the minimum rate of pay at the Medical Center will increase from $8.88 per hour to $9.37 per hour, which will affect a wide variety of positions including drivers, supply specialists, patient care assistants, hospitality workers, and clinical assistants.

The changes took effect on March 12 and will appear in paychecks distributed on March 31. All these compensation adjustments are in addition to pay-for-performance raises that employees received in January. Additional details about these changes are available on the Web via the employee KnowledgeLink. Employees whose compensation has changed due to this month’s revamp will receive a letter describing the changes in detail.