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Hospital CEO Mather gets new contract

Citing her leadership skills and ability to meet established performance goals, the Sonoma Valley Health Care District board unanimously agreed to extend the contract of Sonoma Valley Hospital Chief Executive Officer Kelly Mather for another two years, with a 3 percent raise, bringing her annual salary to $281,190.

“She is an exceptionally talented executive and administrator,” said Boardmember Bill Boerum. “We are strongly in uniformity … on this issue, the contract, the raise and the bonus.”

Mather also earned a very specific performance bonus of $30,974 for making marked improvements in patient and staff satisfaction, along with growing the hospital’s lines of service. The data has been tracked in a dashboard that is presented to the board monthly. Boardmembers Boerum and Madolyn Agrimonti reviewed the data collected during the two years Mather has worked as CEO to calculate trends and weigh her bonus based on positive growth under her tenure.

“The dashboard was used as a quantitative way to determine the value of the bonus,” Boerum said. “I’ve been in the corporate world for a long time, and I’ve always resented these CEOs that include a bonus in their salary. To me, salary should be based on performance, and Kelly agrees with that. She wanted it to be based on her performance at the hospital.”

She has improved staff satisfaction, as indicated by the drop in employee turnover from 18.9 percent in 2010 to 7.9 percent in 2012. Patient satisfaction increased from the 2010 level of 81.7 percent in the emergency room and 85.5 percent in the surgical center, to 88.2 percent and 91 percent, respectively.

“There’s been a series of analytical things that are tracked over time. Everything is moving in the right direction under Kelly’s leadership,” said boardmember Kevin Carruth.

While the dashboard was used to calculate the bonus, the board said the decision to extend the contract came after careful review. All five boardmembers, along with the Chief Medical Officer Robbie Cohen, and Lee Domanico, CEO at Marin General Hospital, who has been working with Mather to meet the local district hospital’s goal, took a survey of 59 performance-based questions to review Mather’s work. Mather also completed the survey.

“In some cases, we ranked Kelly higher than she ranked herself,” Boerum said, adding that the documents, “revealed an executive of singular talent.”

The board also found, in reviewing compensation paid to other executives in area hospitals, that Mather was just below average. The 3 percent raise was selected to bring her closer to the market range.