UNC Hospitals' cardiovascular surgeon receives 130 percent pay raise, stays at UNC

UNC Hospitals recently raised a cardiovascular surgeon’s salary by $335,000, to $600,000 annually.

Dr. Brett Sheridan is the only surgeon at UNC Hospitals who performs highly specialized adult cardiac and thoracic surgeries.

Sheridan was offered a position at another institution, but UNC Hospitals Center for Heart and Vascular Care was willing to pay to keep him in at UNC.

Sheridan declined to name the institution that extended the offer.

The publicly funded hospital depends on clinical revenue to keep the facilities operating. Sheridan, who has been at UNC since 2002, performed more than 100 procedures in the past year alone, bringing in about $1.3 million. Sheridan’s salary comes from clinical revenue.

“If he were to have gone somewhere else, it would have impacted the heart program in a negative way,” said UNC Health Care media relations manager Stephanie Crayton.

The loss of a surgeon of Sheridan’s specialization, and the revenue his procedures bring in, could have jeopardized UNC’s heart surgery accreditation and required a lengthy search for a replacement. So the hospital enacted a nearly 130 percent pay raise for the surgeon, although that offer was still less than the one extended to lure him away.

Sheridan said it is a “commitment to the institution,” not the salary, that influenced his decision to stay at UNC Hospitals. He said he has grown fond of the Chapel Hill facility during his eight-year tenure, and his reasons to remain run deeper than pay or an obligation to the hospital.

“It is more of an evolved love, a passion to the place,” Sheridan said. “The mission here is something worth striving toward.”

The pay raise was something that couldn’t be ignored, he said, but was not at the heart of his decision.

“The added dimension of the campus and the ability to educate the next generation of doctors and take on future health care problems” is one reason that keeps him in Chapel Hill, Sheridan said.

While his departure would have left vacant his critical position, Sheridan said he did not let that pressure his choice.

“Everyone is replaceable,” he said. “Someone could be recruited behind me.”

Aside from the location at UNC, he said the other influential factors were UNC Hospitals’ charitable services and the quality of people with whom he works.

About 10 percent of Sheridan’s procedures have been charity cases, said Crayton, contributing to the $135 million worth of charity cases the center for heart and vascular care has seen this year.

“It’s fabulous that you can be in an institution… that you can be part of a charitable mission,” he said. “It’s a privilege.”

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.