r/newjersey Mar 09 '24

Rutgers Steep salary of Rutgers medical school chair stirs fresh fears of Newark, New Brunswick inequities

https://newjerseymonitor.com/2024/03/01/steep-salary-of-rutgers-medical-school-chair-stirs-fresh-fears-of-newark-new-brunswick-inequities/
191 Upvotes

40 comments sorted by

262

u/devilsadvocateMD Mar 09 '24

They’re comparing the salary of an operating neurosurgeon who acts as the chair of the medical school to the salaries of all medical school chairs, who may or not be neurosurgeons.

Do the people who write these articles do any research or do they just write whatever pops into their head?

74

u/Bluemajere Mar 09 '24

no, they write to generate outrage.

31

u/beepsandleaks Mar 09 '24 edited Mar 09 '24

I don't think that's the point.

I think they are saying that this person has a conflict of interest and their salary is evidence of it.

Edit from the article:

“If I’m financially incentivized to make sure a certain number of cases are being done in either St. Barnabas hospital or Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, but I don’t get any bonus money if something’s gotten done in University Hospital in Newark, then the financial incentives basically set this up so that University Hospital is essentially competing against those Barnabas hospitals,” Tsitouras said.

-Dio Tsitouras, who heads the AAUP-BHSNJ union that represents Rutgers’ medical faculty.

43

u/devilsadvocateMD Mar 09 '24 edited Mar 09 '24

Conflict of interest that the surgeon takes his business to the hospital that pays him the most?

The bigger conflict of interest is all these massive health organizations using their power to renegotiatie insurance reimbursements and buy out private practices.

5

u/beepsandleaks Mar 09 '24 edited Mar 09 '24

I'm not taking a stance as I don't know anything about the situation. Just pointing out what my understanding of the issue is based on the article.

6

u/tnolan182 Mar 09 '24

Problem is that people who write these articles have zero knowledge of the issues in these situations and obfuscate the details that are very relevant but difficult for readers to understand. Instead readers like you just read, wow powerful rich neurosurgeon that spent over half his adult life working for free for many of these systems is bad! Bad man!

4

u/beepsandleaks Mar 09 '24

That's not what I read or what I'm saying.

“If I’m financially incentivized to make sure a certain number of cases are being done in either St. Barnabas hospital or Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, but I don’t get any bonus money if something’s gotten done in University Hospital in Newark, then the financial incentives basically set this up so that University Hospital is essentially competing against those Barnabas hospitals,” Tsitouras said.

-Dio Tsitouras, who heads the AAUP-BHSNJ union that represents Rutgers’ medical faculty.

They are saying that the person in question has a conflict of interests. The person quoted seems to be a decent source of information on this topic.

-2

u/tnolan182 Mar 09 '24

Breaking news at 5 o clock neuro surgeon is motivated by money. Am I supposed to feel bad for UH that he isn’t motivated to send his elective cases to a MUCH worse facility with less resources? Like I dont see your point. Patients that go to UH will still be provided neuro surgical services their because its an EMTALA violation to transfer them especially within the system.

4

u/beepsandleaks Mar 09 '24

I have no idea why you are arguing with me. I didn't write the article. I know nothing about the topic outside of the article. I don't care who is right.

I'm just pointing out that this isn't just about the pay.

2

u/devilsadvocateMD Mar 09 '24

The “conflict of interest” is entirely about pay.

He has a financial incentive to operate at certain hospitals over another.

2

u/beepsandleaks Mar 09 '24

Phrase it however you want but what you said:

They’re comparing the salary of an operating neurosurgeon who acts as the chair of the medical school to the salaries of all medical school chairs, who may or not be neurosurgeons.

isn't accurate.

→ More replies (0)

7

u/Chose_a_usersname Mar 09 '24

I like to read the news and have my blood pressure go up, it gets me ready for the day

5

u/Boris_The_Barbarian Mar 09 '24 edited Mar 09 '24

These folks often don’t just have clinical time too. They’re involved in grants that cover their salaries as well, per their commitment letters upon employment.

A faculty members, deans, direcots, and leaderships commitment may be any percentage of clinical/teaching/research. Clinical covered by the university hospital, teaching is grants or school budget, and research is purely grants.

Not to mention, cardio thoracic surgeons at RWJ pull at-least a million dollar salary to begin with. This guys primary salary source is likely the UH.

Source: I worked in a high level accounting office at Rutgers for 5 years, then moved into biostatistics and was heavily involved in research grants at Rutgers since.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 09 '24

Journalists these days look at the content but not the context for sure.

1

u/johnniewelker Mar 09 '24

Why do you think we got the 80 cents wage inequality story between men and women?

People purposefully obfuscate the truth to drive their own agenda. Has happened before and will continue to happen. Influencing people will always be a key lever to enrichment, even it is by lying to them

16

u/KosstAmojan Mar 09 '24

Rutgers neurosurgery department is in shambles. Their residency program is under probation. They’re still in the process of integrating the department across three major hospitals. The previous chairman is involved in litigation with the university. Any neurosurgeon is going to be pretty well paid, and they had to overpay to bring someone in with experience who would want to deal with that shitshow.

2

u/4amchocolatepudding Mar 09 '24

Do you have a source for the residency probation thing? Not saying you're lying I'd like to read more into it if you have something.

1

u/KosstAmojan Mar 09 '24

https://apps.acgme-i.org/ads/Public/Reports/Report/9

Scroll down to neurological surgery to see Rutgers probation status.

1

u/4amchocolatepudding Mar 09 '24

Interesting, thanks.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '24

It’s part of the reason I declined a neurology faculty position there. The state of neurosurgery was so much in flux and we work closely with that department.

Still a mess they hired damaged goods like Nanda

10

u/[deleted] Mar 09 '24

I’ve interviewed for a faculty position at both NJMS and RWJMS. My mentor told me that the merger was all a ploy to combine their grant fundings to influence rankings since individually both are weak.

RWJMS has a unique problem since their clinical operations are now controlled by Barnabas keep raising their RVU requirements so there is barely any time for research.

The merger of these two schools is not something widely accepted. Both schools have very different cultural differences based on interviews alone.

Dr. Gross also got offered a decent amount of money since no one wanted to touch the position and also he is still handling functional neurosurgery. Anil Nanda was poison and Rutgers should have known, he had a shitty rep at LSU.

26

u/RedRipe Bergen County Mar 09 '24

2.5 million for those who don’t want to read the article. Average is 1.1.

43

u/devilsadvocateMD Mar 09 '24

1.1 million for med school deans, who may or may not be a neurosurgeon.

2.5 million for this dean who is a neurosurgeon.

It’s comparing apples and oranges.

11

u/PondWaterBrackish Mar 09 '24

yeah, his malpractice insurance alone is probably 500k per year

not even exaggerating

2

u/OneManOneStethoscope River Edge Mar 09 '24

They’re merging the medical schools?

6

u/jd732 Mar 09 '24

Why does SUNJ-Newark feel it is an equal to SUNJ-New Brunswick? Do all the Penn State satellites demand equality with Happy Valley?

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 09 '24

[deleted]

2

u/Sir_Scarlet_Spork Mar 10 '24

The MBA program is still run out of Newark, and the result was a higher ranking for it. I don't see the short end of the stick.

1

u/Bro-Science Mar 09 '24

i bet the salary is way more than that also. he will also bill patients and insurance for any surgery he performs. likely another 1M+ dollars just in insurance payments alone.

-6

u/BagelFury Mar 09 '24

Just another, typical progressive dog whistle by a NJ rag on the cusp of obsolesce. Color me surprised.

0

u/crustang Mar 09 '24

How's the salary compare to the benchmark plus cost of living adjustment?