The Monterey County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to pay more than half-a-million dollars for consultant work at Natividad Medical Center.

Supervisors approved $507,000 to extend the contract with the county-owned hospital’s interim chief informational officer, Michael Jobin, through November 2008.

Before the change, Jobin’s contract would have ended Sept. 30.

Wellspring Management, part of the Chicago-based Huron Consulting Group, is now slated to collect a total $7.4 million from the county for helping the hospital dig out from millions of dollars of losses each year.

“I think this is a very good investment at this moment,” Supervisor Dave Potter said.

The contract between the county and Huron ends at the end of 2008, by which time a new, permanent team of top hospital administrators will lead the county-owned Salinas hospital.

If Jobin completes his Huron-assigned projects at Natividad before that time, Natividad CEO William Foley said, the county may not need to spend the full $507,000 it’s agreed to.Supervisors also agreed Tuesday to increase the salaries for six non-consultant management positions at Natividad that were underpaid compared to similar jobs in other areas. The increase will cost $69,412.

Supervisors last agreed to pay the consultants more in February, when they boosted Huron’s contract by $1.8 million to hire more consultants for the hospital.

In his presentation to the supervisors, Foley said the county has received a 10-fold return on its investment. This spring, Huron consultants said they cut hospital expenses by $20 million.

Supervisors said they expect to see requests for more money as the consultants seek to bring in more Huron officials to overhaul hospital departments. The county has an arrangement with Huron to negotiate pay arrangements every six months based on the consultants’ performance.

As long as the consultants provide a good return on the county’s investment, Supervisor Dave Potter said he feels the requests for more money made so far are justified.

Future requests, however, will still be subject to county scrutiny, he said.

“It depends on what the request is for,” Potter said.