Just taking a look at the news around the country, we start to get a sense of what being a hospital CEO is like. Just like other high-level officials, the position is very public - everyone knows how much you make, everyone blames you for mistakes made by your staff, and everyone watches your every move with great curiousity. Who can blame them - sometimes the hospital is the biggest employer in the entire town or county.

The Good
This new hospital CEO has wasted no time in building relationships with the staff and the community. In his 1st trustee meeting, he got the board to approve a gain-sharing program which will reward employees for working together to accomplish guest satisfaction and financial goals. Specifically, each component will pay up to 1 percent of an employee's base pay for successful attainment.

This hospital CEO in Indiana decided to donate his $44,000 raise to pay for nurse training. Sure, he's still making $321,000, but 44G's is still 44G's. Of course, he announced this generous act a few days after this scathing column came out in the local newspaper, accusing the hospital board of being asleep for allowing this raise to happen. This one is good, bad, and ugly.

These hospital CEOs banded together to make their hospital campuses smoke-free.

This 38-year-old hospital COO is moving up in the world to bigger turf. It's not every day that you hear a board member described their hospital COO as "the best thing that ever happened to this hospital."

The Bad
This hospital CEO in Virginia faced tough questions from the city council around their "personally demeaning" people management problems after the hospital facility sale to LifePoint last year.

This hospital CEO in Australia was bailed out by his premier - narrowly avoiding a strike of hospital kitchen workers. From one rep: "I would not allow my children to have food processed in a kitchen of this standard. Quite simply it is a disgrace."

The Ugly
This hospital CEO has been indicted for corruption charges. Ah, yes, the temptation of power is just too great for some.

And finally, this CEO is leaving his $500k+ position after being threatened with dismissal for what one board member called a "complete lack of leadership." Don't feel too bad for him, at least he isn't where his former CFO is - in jail for embezzling $55k in funds.