photo by: John Young

Lawrence Memorial Hospital CEO Russell Johnson is pictured on Aug. 4, 2016.

The LMH Health Board of Trustees approved a $55,000 raise for CEO Russ Johnson following an executive session Wednesday morning.

Johnson’s base salary for 2022 will be $550,000, a market-rate adjustment of 11.16%. His salary before that increase was $494,769.60.

A community update from LMH Health following that meeting indicated that Johnson’s base salary hadn’t had a market adjustment since he started in his role in 2016, and the board found his compensation was well below the median based on state, regional and national salary data. His new salary more closely aligns with the market midpoint for CEOs working at similarly sized hospitals to LMH.

That update also indicates that 30% of Johnson’s salary is considered “at risk,” or only awarded when established metrics have been met or surpassed. After review, the board of trustees approved 95.11% of his variable compensation, or $141,165.

“I want to offer my appreciation to the trustees for what is a very thorough process of review, and to the support team that helps with this objective and transparent discussion with me and the board; I appreciate that,” Johnson said.

Prior to the executive session, the board of trustees heard an update on progress with LMH Health’s strategic partnership with the University of Kansas Health System. Sheryle D’Amico, LMH’s vice president of physician services and lead negotiator in the partnership discussions, said there has been progress in that partnership for a group of clinical areas, which are likely to see some expansion this year.

One of those areas is a collaboration on maternal fetal medicine, providing diagnosis and treatment for those experiencing high-risk pregnancies or fetal abnormalities. D’Amico said that program started at LMH last December and was previously not offered in the community, which meant patients who needed that service had to commute to Kansas City or Topeka to get it.

It’s going well enough, she said, that the partnership is seeking to expand those services.

“That is going so well that we’re actually already in conversations about adding another day per week because of how that has been received,” D’Amico said. “(It’s) an example of how do we bring something to our community to be able to have folks not have to travel.”

D’Amico also said work was underway to bring collaborative vascular surgery to LMH. She said she was optimistic that will be an option locally sometime late this summer.

D’Amico also said discussions continued around expanding LMH’s sports medicine care in that collaboration.

Otherwise, she said there was still ongoing “behind the scenes” work to translate the partnership’s memorandum of understanding into a more formal document; she said the goal is to finish that work by June.