UAMS to pay year’s salary to its EX-CFO

Deal made with chancellor included noncompete clause

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will pay its former finance chief $312,000 in private funds for the next year under an agreement she made with its chancellor, Dr. Dan Rahn, before she left to take a job at a Tennessee hospital.

In a plan detailed in letters from Rahn, former Chief Financial Officer Melony Goodhand also agreed to answer questions related to UAMS finances and not to consult or work for a hospital within a 50-mile radius of Little Rock for one year.

Goodhand told Rahn that she planned to find a job in operations at another hospital after she was not selected for the position of chief executive of the UAMS Medical Center, Rahn said in a Nov. 26 letter. She later resigned her position effective Dec. 31 to begin work in Tennessee, an earlier departure date than the two had initially discussed.

Goodhand agreed to the noncompete clause because of “the amount of strategic, confidential and sensitive information” she had acquired concerning UAMS, Rahn wrote in the Nov. 26 letter, which he wrote before she resigned.

The agreement “is particularly important right now because of negotiations with St. Vincent Health System and the exploratory discussions concerning partnership or alignment of other hospitals in Arkansas to prepare for health reform,” Rahn wrote.

UAMS is exploring a clinical partnership with St. Vincent Health System, a private Catholic hospital, to reduce costs and share services. Each hospital paid $600,000 for a contract with Deloitte consultants to explore the feasibility of a partnership and $120,000 for related expenses, such as lodging.

Goodhand, who has been involved in those discussions, has also worked with outside consultants to reduce UAMS expenses over a multiyear period.

Under her agreement with Rahn, she will be paid the equivalent of a year’s salary with funds from the UAMS Foundation. UAMS will also pay for her health insurance until she is insured by her new employer and provide her with an iPad and laptop, Rahn’s letter said.

The agreement complies with terms Rahn detailed in a December 2010 letter after Goodhand “declined a generous offer of employment elsewhere.”

“In the event of your termination without cause, you will be furnished written notice of one year and I will determine that during this time you shall either continue your employment in your current position at UAMS, be placed in other employment at UAMS for the same salary and benefits, or accept a severance package from private funds,” he wrote.

That letter also described a $500-per-month automobile allowance “paid from non-state sources” and a new salary of $306,000, which was later approved by the UA board of trustees.

Before that agreement, Goodhand’s salary was $258,000, UAMS spokesman Leslie Taylor said.

Goodhand, who does not have a listed number, did not share the name of her new employer with UAMS, Taylor said.

Jim Wozniak, a spokesman for Wellmont Health System, confirmed Monday a report

by the Arkansas Times blog that Goodhand left Arkansas to become chief operating officer of Wellmont’s Bristol Regional Medical Center in Bristol, Tenn.

Goodhand came to UAMS in 2004 from a similar job in Michigan.

“I will assist you with a smooth transition and stay connected to assist as necessary from afar,” she wrote in her Dec. 10 resignation letter. “I am also willing to come back to UAMS if needed for a specific purpose/meeting.”

Taylor said UAMS plans a national search to find a new chief financial officer by the start of the next fiscal year, July 1.