Geri Forbes, CEO for WhidbeyHealth, received high praise and a $70,000 bonus during her annual performance review by the Whidbey Island Public Health District Board of Commissioners.

The bonus represents 25 percent of Forbes’ $279,000 annual salary.

“We’re impressed with the administrative team you’ve assembled and we very much appreciate where you’ve gotten us to date,” board President Ron Wallin told Forbes earlier this week at the board’s monthly meeting.

The annual bonus is part of the contract negotiated when Forbes was hired in early 2015.

“We’re just very, very impressed with her ability to put people together and work as a team,” commissioner Eric Anderson said.

The commissioners met in an executive session behind closed doors for 30 minutes Monday and then reconvened to disclose their discussion and to take action.

“We reviewed Geri’s goals and those she accomplished,” said board member Nancy Fey.

“Geri, by her own admission, said some goals were not met, those which she didn’t have total control of. It was a good discussion.”

Forbes oversees about 800 employees and all the medical services of WhidbeyHealth, including the medical center and seven clinics.

“We talked about how she’s done a fantastic job this year,” Wallin said.

“Rural hospitals are closing left and right.”

He also explained the reasoning behind the CEO’s salary and bonus.

Forbes annual $279,000 salary is lower than local hospitals of the same size or smaller, Wallin pointed out.

“It’s less than Island Hospital and the Skagit hospital,” he said.

Wallin pointed out that Forbes is responsible not just for the 32-bed hospital but an entire health care system.

WhidbeyHealth should be compared to other, larger critical access systems or hospital districts because of the quantity and scope of services offered by the public hospital, he said.