I think State Farm, Allstate and another company have ceased to write car and home insurance in W.Va. Good grief. In this morning's Wheeling paper are accounts of several patients sent to other hospitals for surgery already - none was an emergency case, thankfully. Some surgeons "on leave" came in for emergency procedures at Wheeling Hospital.
As a walkout by general, cardio-thoracic and orthopedic surgeons in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle entered its second day, administrators from the four hospitals affected by the move were called to Charleston to discuss solutions.
Meanwhile, three surgeons were granted temporary privileges to operate at Wheeling Hospital Thursday to deal with life-threatening emergency cases, according to Dr. Donald Hofreuter, administrator and chief executive officer of the facility.
In the two cases, one of which involved two of the surgeons, the patients were too unstable for transport to outside facilities for care. In such instances, the surgeons will make themselves available for procedures, he said.
Two other cardiac patients have required transport to hospitals in Pittsburgh for care, Hofreuter added. In another case, a patient was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown via Tri-State Ambulance, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wheeling Hospital. full story
Here's another story from this a.m.'s paper about a fellow who was turned away at Wheeling Hospital and told to go to Pittsburgh for his nonemergency heart surgery.
A few recent developments:
As the number of surgical procedures at two East Ohio hospitals is increasing dramatically, cutbacks may be looming for employees at their sister facilities in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.
Nearly 40 surgeons with privileges at Ohio Valley Medical Center, Wheeling Hospital, Weirton Medical Center and Reynolds Memorial in Glen Dale continued their leaves of absence for the third consecutive day Friday. The physicians are protesting the skyrocketing cost of medical malpractice insurance and the West Virginia Legislature's alleged inability to take action on tort reform legislation.
Administrators of OVMC and Wheeling Hospital as well as Tom Susman, director of Insurance and Retirement Services for the state, said they remain hopeful and optimistic that the walkouts will end quickly.
Surgeries undertaken at Belmont Community Hospital in Bellaire are up 68 percent, said Dr. Donald Hofreuter, administrator and chief executive officer of its sister facility, Wheeling Hospital.
At OVMC's sister facility, East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry, the number of scheduled surgeries for the coming week is up 100 percent for some days and greatly increased on others, said EORH Associate Administrator Ann Hellstern.
EORH has added nine beds to meet the increased volume, said Brian K. Felici, president and chief executive officer of OVMC and its parent firm, Ohio Valley Health Services and Education Corp.
"We have increased our staff and surgical hours that will be needed to provide complete surgical services in order to meet the needs of patients and surgeons at EORH," Hellstern said.
She noted that typically, 15-20 surgical procedures are done on a daily basis at EORH. On several days next week, that number could rise to nearly 40.
Meanwhile, members of the Ohio County Medical Society noted in a prepared statement that they passed a resolution supporting the surgeons' actions. Medical Society officials said the surgeons' action "is intended to call attention to, and expeditiously end the erosion of West Virginia's health care system."
The resolution indicates there is a critical need for reform in the medical liability crisis in West Virginia. The group urged Gov. Bob Wise to "work expeditiously to satisfactorily address physicians' concerns about the exorbitant cost of obtaining medical liability insurance coverage."
The Medical Society encouraged all parties to work together to quickly resolve the situation.
Officials further indicated they are preparing a detailed analysis of the factors responsible for the crisis in medical liability insurance costs for West Virginia physicians. The analysis, as planned, will include specific examples of how the quality of medical care in the Upper Ohio Valley has suffered as a result of what Medical Society officials claim is the Legislature's "failure to enact meaningful laws governing medical malpractice cases and in the business climate in general."
While Susman said Wise is expected to outline his plans for malpractice reform legislation on Wednesday, Medical Society officials say it's critical for the Legislature to act promptly "in helping to resolve this matter before physicians in communities elsewhere in West Virginia find that they too must resort to actions taken by surgeons in the Northern Panhandle."
Susman said members of the Wise administration are currently drafting the package the governor will submit to the Legislature during his State of the State message Wednesday evening.
Susman called a meeting with the four area hospital administrators, four physicians, and members of the governor's staff Thursday afternoon "productive."
"I thought it advantageous that they have a chance to express their concerns and that there would be an exchange of ideas," Susman said.
While continuing to express hope that the surgeons will end their walkout, Susman said he believed the administration has given physicians throughout the state assurances that "meaningful" tort reform will be addressed in the legislative package, as well as addressing other practice-related concerns, including reimbursement issues.
He expressed hope that physicians "will become part of the process," working collaboratively with state officials, rather than in an adversarial role.
Susman said the state's Public Employees Insurance Agency and a program that oversees health care insurance coverage for children is paying for transports of patients they cover.
"The private insurers might not pay but if they don't, the Insurance Commission will get involved," Susman said, noting that the state has little control over self-insured programs.
Officials for Mountain State Blue Cross/Blue Shield and CareLink noted that their insurance plans will pay for transports on an "as needed" basis for cases determined to be "medically necessary."
Wheeling Hospital and OVMC are also assisting employees whose hours may be reduced with information on filing "low earning" claims with the West Virginia Job Service.
Hofreuter said a small number of surgical procedures are being done at Wheeling Hospital, including plastic surgery, gynecological, eye, ear, and urology procedures.
All full and part-time employees "will be getting a paycheck, but some may be reduced," he said.
However, hospital officials have come up with as many as eight projects that can be undertaken to avoid reducing hours, he said. These include mandatory continuing education, particularly for nurses, for which they are typically paid for their time, taking part in patient transports "out of an abundance of caution," and assisting with records filing, Hofreuter said.
"We have also asked the department directors to determine any special projects they have in mind," he said.
OVMC spokesman Howard Gamble said two patients were transported to EORH and one to The Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus using Wheeling Fire Department off-duty paramedics.
Gamble said the two other ambulance services OVMC uses for patient transports "declined" to take the trip.
Hofreuter said one patient was transported to an outside facility on Friday "because they would probably need catheterization, angioplasty and/or open heart surgery."
While Hofreuter on Wednesday and Thursday granted temporary privileges to three surgeons on leaves of absence to care for two patients needing immediate surgery, no such requests were forthcoming on Friday, he said.
While Robert Fitzsimmons, spokesman for a group of attorneys opposing the surgeons' actions, questioned why the two hospitals allowed the surgeons' leaves of absence, Gamble and Hofreuter said the physicians' alternative would have been resignation.
The procedure to apply for privileges, even after resignation, is a lengthy one, requiring action by several committees within the hospital, Hofreuter said. With leaves of absence, hospital officials can grant temporary privileges, Hofreuter said.
"It's a way to maintain patient care on a higher level," Hofreuter said.
http://www.news-register.net/news/story/014202003_new2.asp
The Robert Fitzsimmons mentioned in the article is the area's biggest offender, a personal injury lawyer who has gotten multi-million dollar awards, most of which goes to him. He and his personal injury cronies had the nerve to accuse the surgeons of violating their Hippocratic Oath (apparently, the lawyers have taken a Hypocritical Oath, to which they're closely adhering), and to refer to the patients as "abandoned." That story is here:
http://www.wtov9.com/news/localthis.asp?id=4302