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

Hannah Smoot
·2 min read
Gene Woods, CEO of Atrium Health, made more than $9.8 million in total compensation in 2021.

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.