Less than a year and a half ago, Erlanger Health System CEO Kevin Spiegel talked in an editorial board meeting with the Times Free Press about the small amount of operating cash the hospital had as it continued to hemorrhage red ink.
It had taken nearly $14 million in state and federal insurance reimbursement cuts, was expected to see the amount of uncompensated care rise to $92 million and had 4,000 employees whose paid time off had been frozen.
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Indeed, Erlanger lost a combined $36 million from fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2013, but before the end of fiscal 2014 had rallied to earn $11.3 million.
For fiscal 2015, the hospital's bottom line jumped to a record $37.3 million.
It's a remarkable turnaround in anyone's book.
As such, pending a vote by trustees on Thursday, its top 124 executives will receive $2.1 million in incentive pay (an average of $16,935 apiece), Spiegel will get a $244,966 bonus (boosting his compensation in fiscal 2015 to $981,000), and 3,300 nonmanager employers will receive $400 bonuses.
All system employees will receive a 3 percent raise in January.
The incentive pay is a result, Erlanger officials announced, of the hospital exceeding all of its financial goals (though not some of its quality measurements).
The rosy picture continues with more than 250 employees added in the past year and a 9.4 percent increase in inpatient admissions.
The hospital, four months ago, also revealed a multi-phase project that includes a children's hospital, an ambulatory center, a women's center and a stroke center.
Last year's executive performance bonuses were awarded with little public discussion and only months after Spiegel had bemoaned the hospital's desperate situation. This year, trustees held several public meetings on the incentive pay and bonus plan, well ahead of Monday's Budget and Finance Committee unanimous endorsement.
What only time will tell is whether the black ink trend is a sustained one, something the hospital system has not seen in years. If the 18-month numbers are any indication, though, a plan for continued growth and profitability has been put in place and should result in even bigger and better things for Chattanooga's only public hospital.