Minneapolis — Oct. 31

Integrated Healthcare Strategies, a national compensation and human resource consulting firm, announced the close of its 2011 health care compensation survey season with data highlights from select surveys. Responses from survey participation shared with the public came out of the firm’s national health care staff, nursing and leadership compensation surveys.

Integrated Healthcare Strategies, with offices in Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas, has conducted health care compensation surveys for more than 20 years.

Data on staff compensation showed that, of the average single year wage growth rates, four of the top 10 positions are rehabilitation jobs. These jobs had an average base wage growth rate of 2 percent or higher, year over year. In 2011, 75 percent of all staff survey respondents indicated that their actual salary increase budget remained unchanged or increased from the previous year.

Data on nursing compensation showed that 80 percent of respondents provided nursing positions with market increases over the last 12 months, while 87 percent of respondents indicated nursing positions were provided with merit increases. Nationally, organizations provided a 1.8 percent average total increase to staff level nursing positions within the last 12 months.

Also nationally, new-hire rates for staff nurses are approximately $3 per hour higher for nurses with at least five years of experience, compared to entry-level staff nurses. The same holds true for nurses with at least 10 years of experience, compared to nurses with five years of experience.

Data on leadership compensation showed that median same incumbent salary levels increased on average 3 percent at health care systems and by 2.8 percent at independent and subsidiary hospitals.

Chief Executive Officers who are eligible for both short- and long-term incentives have a total incentive opportunity as high as 80-100 percent of salary at target or expected value. C-Suite executives, on average, received a short-term incentive award between 25-35 percent of salary at healthcare systems, and between 18-27 percent of salary at independent and subsidiary hospitals.

Integrated Healthcare Strategies conducts surveys on all the people of health care — executives, employees, physicians, advanced practice clinicians, medical directors and nurses.

Source: Integrated Healthcare Strategies