Here’s how much Atrium Health’s top executives made last year

Charlotte’s largest hospital system Atrium Health paid top officer Gene Woods more than $7.9 million last year in total compensation — up from nearly $7.3 million in 2019. That’s an 8% increase.

Woods saw a smaller jump in salary last year than in previous years. He got a base salary of $2.8 million in 2020, up from $2.7 million the year before.

As a public hospital under N.C. law, compensation for top executives at Atrium Health is a public record.

In 2018, Woods made about $6.1 million in total compensation. The year before, he made about $5.4 million.

Compensation for the hospital system’s top 10 executives equals less than 1% of total compensation for all employees, according to Atrium.

Those highest paid executives made more than $26.6 million in total compensation last year, according to the financial disclosure form.

Ninfa Saunders, former CEO of Navicent Health, which combined with Atrium in 2018, made nearly $4.2 million last year, down from nearly $5.1 million the year before. Saunders stepped down in October.

And Atrium’s chief financial officer, Anthony DeFurio, had total compensation of nearly $2.5 million in 2020, up from $1.8 million the year before.

A momentous year

Last year saw a number of big changes at the hospital system.

That included a major announcement in October, that Atrium had officially combined with Wake Forest Baptist Health and the Wake Forest School of Medicine in October, paving the way for a medical school in Charlotte.

The combined health system will have over 70,000 employees, 42 hospitals and more than 1,500 care locations, according to Atrium.

The hospital system took a major hit early in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic hit North Carolina.

Atrium paused many non-essential surgeries and procedures in March, to reserve bed space and personal protective equipment to prepare for a potential surge in COVID-19 cases.

The hospital resumed those procedures in April. But the pause in many surgeries and procedures resulted in “significant financial consequences” for the hospital system, Woods said in April.

This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 10:28 AM.

Hannah Smoot

The Charlotte Observer

704-358-5349

Hannah Smoot covers business in Charlotte, focusing on health care and transportation. She has been covering COVID-19 in North Carolina since March 2020. She previously covered money and power at The Rock Hill Herald in South Carolina and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.