Summa Health (OH) bringing in new doctor group to staff its ERs starting New Years Day
Source: Akron Beacon Journal
December 30, 2016 - 09:34 PM
Summa Health System announced Friday that it is replacing the physicians who staff its five emergency rooms Sunday.
Dr. Thomas Malone, Summa’s president and CEO, said in a memo that Summa had a plan to “allow for the seamless transition of care for our community.”
But several people who work in Summa’s emergency rooms said Friday they were not prepared for a such an abrupt transition, particularly on New Year’s Day, when the number of patients seen in ERs tends to drop, but the critical needs of those patients tends to increase.
Summa Emergency Associates — an independent physician corporation that’s separate from Summa — has staffed Summa emergency rooms for decades. Its contract expires Dec. 31 and is being replaced with a new group of doctors under contract still being finalized with U.S. Acute Care Solutions (USACS) of Canton.
Read more: http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/summa-health-bringing-in-new-doctor-group-to-staff-its-ers-starting-new-year-s-day-1.737043
Snip~"Within minutes of the memo going out to staff, Summa employees began calling the Beacon Journal. Some described doctors leaving the emergency rooms Friday crying. Others said nurses — some wearing armbands supporting SEA doctors — were huddled, talking about their fears of working with doctors they do not know."
"Malone terminated the relationship with SEA.
It also said one of the Summa physicians assigned to renegotiate the contract with SEA is married to the CEO of a physician contract group that competes with SEA.
"I think most of us would say this is at a minimum poor judgment and an obvious conflict of interest," the memo said."
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