UCLA’s biggest salary goes to top liver transplant surgeon
By Adam Foxman
Feb. 26, 2006 9:00 p.m.
The liver is the largest glandular organ in the body. It
performs more than 400 functions each day: It makes bile, aids in
digestion, makes proteins, and stores vitamins, fats and
sugars.
Ronald Busuttil has built a career around it, performing
thousands of transplants, and like the busy organ, at UCLA he is
responsible for many vital tasks.
Busuttil is the founder of the university’s liver
transplant program and chairman of the UCLA Medical Center’s
surgery department. He made more money than any other UCLA employee
in 2005 and has performed the majority of the transplants at the
liver transplant center he established, one of the most prolific
centers in the nation.
As a result, he received the largest total compensation of
anyone at UCLA last year.
Including his base salary, his administrative stipend, and the
salary he earns based on the money he brings into the university
with his medical work, Busuttil’s income in 2005 was
$1,657,329.
The next highest-paid individual at UCLA is basketball coach Ben
Howland, who earned more than $1 million last year. Of that amount,
$150,000 was his university base salary, and the rest came from
revenue generated by UCLA athletics such as ticket sales, donations
and sponsorships.
UCLA’s highest-paid clinical faculty member after Busuttil
is Dieter Enzmann, chairman of the radiology department. Enzmann
earned $726,199 in 2005.
Busuttil, who declined to be interviewed for this article, earns
most of his pay with his medical work.
Many physicians reduce their hospital work when they become
department heads, but as chairman of surgery, Busuttil has worked
at a frenetic pace.
Since he founded the liver transplant program 22 years ago, he
has performed nearly 3,000 transplants of a total 4,000 that have
been done at UCLA, said UCLA spokeswoman Dale Tate.
In the last three years, his productivity level was at 175.2
percent, 164.5 percent and 184.7 percent of the benchmark the
Association of American Medical Colleges uses to judge relative
productivity among physicians. And the surgical community has
noticed.
“He put UCLA on the map with liver transplants,”
said Mark Barr, a cardio-thorasic transplant surgeon at the USC
Medical Center. “There’s no question that he’s
the linchpin of (UCLA’s) surgery department.”
Barr, who like Busuttil is a member of the American Society of
Transplant Surgeons, called Busuttil “phenomenally
talented.”
When he heard Busuttil’s total salary, his response was
simply, “Wow.”
“Ron works harder than anyone I have ever known in our
field,” Barr said.
The work Busuttil has done during his 28-year career at UCLA,
has increased recognition of the university’s medical
programs.
In 1983, when the liver transplant procedure was new and there
were no residency programs set up to teach it, Busuttil went to the
University of Pittsburgh to learn from Thomas Starzl, who preformed
the world’s first successful human liver transplant in
1967.
When Busuttil returned, he established a liver transplant
program at UCLA, and it grew rapidly under his sharp eye.
Last year UCLA transplanted 187 livers, according to
ustransplant.org, the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.
This was the highest number in California, with the second being UC
San Francisco at 148 transplants, according to the Web site.
The Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville Florida location led the
nation in liver transplants with 253 in 2005, and the University of
Pittsburgh performed 230 transplants last year.
Typical programs transplanted between 15 and 75 livers last
year.
Busuttil’s work also extends to organizations other than
UCLA.
The Westwood resident is a past president of the American
Society of Transplant Surgeons, and he was named “man of the
year” by the Los Angeles-based United Liver Association in
1996.
With all that, he still makes time for his interests, one of
which is sports cars.
In 2002, Busuttil and his 1973 246 GTS won a platinum award at
the Ferrari Club of America’s annual meeting, according to
the club’s Web site.
