Hawaii’s public hospital system employs more than 4,000 workers, and payroll represents two-thirds of the organization’s $547 million annual budget.

Hawaii Health Systems Corp. (HHSC), which runs 14 health-care facilities on five islands, received about one-eighth of its budget last year, or $66.9 million, from the state’s general fund, with most of its operating budget coming from patient services.

Civil Beat filed a request under the state鈥檚 open records law asking for the names, positions and salaries of the system’s employees. The request is part of a larger effort to make more transparent how the state is spending taxpayer money. (You can also read articles about state salaries, University of Hawaii salaries and pay at the Legislature.) HHSC provided a list of 4,092 employees organized alphabetically, not by facility or region. For unionized employees, the HHSC provided Civil Beat with salary ranges.

The HHSC salary data reflects a 5 percent pay cut taken by executive and nonunion employees, which went into effect Oct. 1, 2009. HHSC employees represented by the Hawaii Government Employees Association also took a 5 percent cut in pay, effective Oct. 1, 2009 through June 30, 2011. On April 1, employees represented by the United Public Workers union began taking furlough days twice a month, also through June 30, 2011.

Here is the data as provided by HHSC to Civil Beat.

Civil Beat has created a searchable database for full members to make the data more accessible. Here’s an example of such a database.

HHSC is often described as a “quasi-public” state agency. The state in 1996 transferred oversight of its rural community hospitals from the Department of Health to the newly formed HHSC to give the facilities more autonomy and self-governance. The system is managed by a CEO and five regional CEOs, all under the control of a 12-member board of directors.

The organization is required to submit annual reports to the Hawaii Legislature. It includes salary information by position in those , but does not include employee names. Under state law, their names, salaries and positions are among many details of their employment that are a matter of public record.

HHSC spent $369 million on salaries and benefits last year, representing the bulk of its operating expenses of $547 million. The most recent available is for the year ended June 30, 2009. HHSC said financials for the year ended June 2010 won’t be available until the end of the year, when an audit is completed. HHSC spokesman Miles Takaaze said the system is projecting a $537 million operating budget for fiscal 2011, with about $80.5 million from the state general fund.

The hospital network, which accounts for almost 20 percent of all acute care discharges in the state, lost $64.4 million last year. This despite the state giving it an additional $25.1 million to cover union pay increases.

Here is a breakdown of the HHSC’s five regions and employee compensation for each hospital:

East Hawaii Region:

• , $6.7 million spent on salaries and benefits.
• , $83.6 million spent on salaries and benefits.
• , $4.7 million spent on salaries and benefits.
• , $3.3 million spent on salaries and benefits.

West Hawaii Region:

• , $4.7 million spent on salaries and benefits.
• , $42.3 million spent on salaries and benefits.

Kauai Region:

• , $25.6 million spent on salaries and benefits.
• , $14.4 million spent on salaries and benefits.

Maui Region:

• , $114.2 million spent on salaries and benefits.
• , $17.2 million鈥� spent on salaries and benefits.
• , $2.8 million spent on salaries and benefits.

Oahu Region:

• , $4.4 million spent on salaries and benefits.
• , $20.5 million spent on salaries and benefits.
• , $16.9 million spent on salaries and benefits.

HHSC said expenses for salaries and benefits had increased 11.2 percent from the previous year due to the following:

• Collective bargaining pay raises of 2.5 percent to 5 percent for union employees totaling $13.9 million, and associated benefit expenses totaling $4.6 million.
• The two Kauai facilities converted its physicians from contractors to employees in late 2008 at a cost of $5.4 million.
• Pension increases to make up a liability.

A Civil Beat analysis of the salary information shows that the system’s five regional CEOs are among the highest paid employees 鈥斅爐hree of them are paid more than the interim systemwide president and CEO.

Howard Ainsley, regional CEO for the system’s East Hawaii region, is the highest paid employee with an annual salary of $228,000. That salary would make him the fourth highest paid employee in state government, not including the University of Hawaii. Three other health officials are ahead of him. Earl Greenia, head of the West Hawaii region, is second-highest paid at $218,500. (Greenia resigned this month to take a position in California, and his last day with HHSC will be Oct. 31.) Wesley Lo, in charge of the Maui region’s three facilities, is third at $211,016.

Alice Hall, interim president and CEO of the entire system, is the fourth-highest employee with a salary of $195,938. Hall’s permanent title is vice president and general counsel. The regional CEO for the two Kauai hospitals, Jerry Walker, earns $185,250 a year, while the CEO for the Oahu facilities, Vincent Lee earns $184,310 a year.

By comparison, Civil Beat looked at the salaries for executives of some of Hawaii’s private hospital systems. The president and CEO of The Queens Health Systems, which oversees 10 companies including The Queen’s Medical Center, is paid a base salary of $573,777 and total compensation of $1.67 million, according to the most with .

The president and CEO of Hawaii Pacific Health, which operates four hospitals 鈥� Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children, Kapiolani Medical Center at Pali Momi, Straub Clinic & Hospital and Wilcox Health on Kauai 鈥� receives $1.1 million in compensation, according to the company’s most .

Here’s a list of the 50 highest-paid employees of the system.

Rank	Name	Title	Salary
1	Howard Ainsley	REGIONAL CEO	$228,000
2	Earl Greenia	REGIONAL CEO	$218,500
3	Wesley Lo	REGIONAL CEO	$211,016
4	Alice Hall	INTERIM PRESIDENT/CEO	$195,938
5	Edward Fess	REGIONAL SYSTEMS DESIGN OFFICER	$190,000
6	Jerry Walker	REGIONAL CEO	$185,250
7	Vincent Lee	REGIONAL CEO	$184,310
8	Kiyotaka Yazawa	MEDICAL DIRECTOR	$180,500
9	Money Atwal	ASST ADMR/CFO & CIO	$178,375
10	Kenneth Herzog	ASST ADMR/CHIEF FIN OFFCR	$175,750
11	Kathryn Harter	ASST HOSPITAL ADMR	$171,000
12	Patrick Saka	ASST ADMR/CAO & CFO	$166,476
13	Rod Bjordahl	CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER	$163,068
14	Gerald Tomory	MEDICAL DIRECTOR	$155,610
15	Lance Segawa	INTERIM COO	$147,488
16	Patricia Kalua	HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR	$133,380
17	Daniel Brinkman	CHIEF NURSE EXECUTIVE	$133,000
18	Joanne Iritani	CHIEF NURSE EXECUTIVE	$127,300
19	Edward Chu	INTERIM CFO	$126,216
20	Julie-Beth Ako	ASST HOSPITAL ADMR	$123,044
21	Edward Peskin	MEDICAL DIRECTOR	$120,000
22	Paul Tsukiyama	VP/DIR OF HUMAN RESOURCES	$120,000
23	Russell Johnson	ASST ADMR/CHIEF FIN OFFCR	$118,750
24	Nicholas Hughey	HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR	$117,171
25	Mary Ephan	ASST ADMR-CHIEF OPER OFCR	$114,135
26	Merilyn Harris	HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR	$114,000
27	David Lane Jr	CHIEF COMPLIANCE & PRIVACY OFR	$114,000
28	Nathan Yim	ASST ADMR/CHIEF FIN OFFCR	$112,589
29	Craig Shikuma	MEDICAL DIRECTOR	$112,463
30	Sally Ishikawa	DIRECTOR OF NURSING	$110,514
31	Miles Takaaze	VP COMN/PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIR	$108,283
32	Cathy Meyer-Uyehara	HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR	$106,875
33	Myra Ornellas	HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR	$105,852
34	Earl Bethke	DIR OF TECHNICAL SVCS	$104,500
35	Boyd Murayama	ASST ADMR MEDICAL GRP PRAC DIR	$104,240
36	Michael Perel	ASST ADMR/CHIEF FIN OFFCR	$101,655
37	Ken Takeuchi	ASST HOSPITAL ADMR	$100,994
38	Annie Yonemoto	DIR OF REVENUE MGT	$99,619
39	Dennis Lee	MEDICAL DIRECTOR	$98,989
40	Charla Ota	ASST GENERAL COUNSEL	$95,760
41	Joseph Evanoff	DIR OF CONTRACTS & MTRLS MGT	$95,000
42	Garrett Oguma	ASST ADMR/REG DIR OF FAC	$93,860
43	Lance Anderson	ASST HOSPITAL ADMR	$93,100
44	Richelle Lu	ATTORNEY	$93,100
45	Marcy Rogers	ASST ADMR QUALITY & CONT IMPR	$93,100
46	Stephen Wada	DIR OF REVENUE CYCLE & COMPL	$92,942
47	Nona Wilson	DIRECTOR OF NURSING	$91,765
48	Margaret Daub	DIRECTOR OF NURSING	$91,577
49	Barbara Kahana	DIR OF PROJ IMPL SUPT SVCS	$91,200
50	Taylor Summers	DIR OF APPLICATION SVCS	$89,661

The salary data show that registered nurses employed by the HHSC earn a range of pay as low as $48,024 and as high as $122,340, depending on experience. By comparison, the average annual salary for registered nurses in Hawaii is $80,020, according to the . Hawaii Health Systems Corp. employs 1,115 “RNs” 鈥� a fraction of the 8,930 registered nurses tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The salary information also shows that pharmacists with the HHSC 鈥� there’s 41 of them 鈥� earn a range of pay as low as $29,244 and as high as $98,748, depending on experience. Even the high-end of the range is lower than the average salary for pharmacists in Hawaii, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics lists as $106,230.

While the data from HHSC does not link employees with the facility they work at, HHSC said pay is consistent across its facilities, meaning an entry level nurses aide at Leahi Hospital in Honolulu would receive the same salary as a nurses aide with similar experience at Kona Community Hospital.

This is the full database of all 4,092 employees.