The executive bonuses came.
Then left.
Kind of like Erlanger hospital's good image.
Which came.
Then left.
It was all so dizzying, both the highs and the lows of it. After years of doomsday financials and ever-diminishing political trust, Erlanger is making the turnaround of all turnarounds.
The hospital is the Comeback Kid of 2014.
New CEO Kevin Spiegel has mended relationships with local doctors, Nashville legislators and Washington purseholders, which has led to new federal funding and renewed political trust and favor.
The bottom line began to show less red and more black.
People even began to boldly talk of building a new children's hospital.
Heading into 2015, the hospital is sitting on more than $100 million of new money -- $70 million or so from newly issued bonds (which would never have been issued two years ago), and another $40 million-ish of patient revenue, according to board trustees.
Celebrations were in order.
So last week, the hospital board of trustees voted 10-1 to pay $1.7 million in bonuses to 99 executives and managers.
It went over like a lead-balloon angioplasty.
"I am disgusted," one nurse said. "Saddened."
"Disappointed," said County Mayor Jim Coppinger.
"Betrayed," said state Sen. Todd Gardenhire. "Embarrassed."
"Stunned," said his colleague, state Sen. Bo Watson.
The outcry was so loud that, Thursday night, the hospital suspended the bonuses.
"To hold payments until this issue has been addressed," officials said in a statement.
That's too bad.
Erlanger trustees ought to be able to pay bonuses to whomever they see fit without being tarred and feathered for it.
This isn't middle school; Erlanger shouldn't have to ask permission to stay out late. It's a board of professional and successful business people overseeing the governance of one of the most important buildings -- spiritually and physically -- in our county, which, by the way, doesn't fund it worth two squats.
The board ought to have the autonomy to operate independently and without exaggerated criticism -- especially from legislators who should not be over-applauded for their work in securing new federal funding to Erlanger. Of course you did. It was the right thing to do. And it should have been done years ago.
Not long ago, Erlanger had one foot already dead in the ground.
"We were six months from being sold off," one doctor told me.
Spiegel arrived, and now Erlanger's in the best shape it's been in years, and is poised -- if it can overcome this current crisis -- for more. That comes from hard work, more hard work, and then lots more hard work.
"It's the best management team I've ever seen," one doctor said.
If we want Erlanger to thrive, we have to allow it to take a business mindset, not a poverty mentality. The psychology turns my stomach, but it's the law of the land: if you don't highly reward execs, some other hospital will.
So Erlanger trustees should have the power to do just that.
But they ought to have the wisdom and conscience not to.
The bonus vote was one of the worst-timed decisions of the year, and I'm still stunned they made it.
It was a tone-deaf, morale-bruising gut punch to thousands of employees, many of whom are more upset about this than the vacation freeze. Or phasing out pensions. Or the cuts to retiree health benefits. Or the way they're all working just as hard as the executives, for 1/10th the salary.
We thought we were a team, they cry out. All for one, one for all.
Not $1.7 million for 99.
Bonuses for executives should not leapfrog those for nurses, who are comforting, consoling and caring with every ounce of the we-love-Erlanger-love that each executive has.
Maybe more so. (It's one thing to work hard for $400,000. Quite another for $40,000).
Yes, a 2 percent raise is coming for staff in 2015. Yes, there were raises for nurses in 2014.
But not what was promised.
There are other concerns: was the decision made behind closed doors? How will this affect negotiations with UnitedHealthcare?
Why didn't anyone at Erlanger have the wherewithal to quietly let legislators know the executive bonus vote was coming? Not for permission, just for political courtesy.
Biggest of all: how do you earn back the trust of all your employees?
"I work each day providing the highest level of care feeling that the care I provide represents Erlanger, even though I no longer feel that Erlanger represents me," one nurse said.
Erlanger board, that's your crisis.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.