Posted on 12/28/2002 7:22:06 AM PST by mountaineer
More than a dozen surgeons at the area's two largest hospitals will be off the job starting Jan. 1 to protest rising medical malpractice insurance premiums in West Virginia.
Wheeling Hospital Administrator and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Donald Hofreuter said 12 surgeons in the orthopedic, thoracic-cardiovascular and general surgery departments have filed for leaves of absence starting Wednesday, with another surgeon scheduled to take leave Jan. 3. Brian Felici, incoming president and CEO of Ohio Valley Medical Center, said 12 surgeons in the same specialties at his facility have also filed for leaves of absence.
At Wheeling Hospital, out of eight surgeons in the orthopedic surgery department, four filed for leaves of absence. In general surgery, three of the seven surgeons filed. Cardiovascular surgery will lose all six of it surgeons.
"As of right now, this looks like it's going to happen," said Wheeling Hospital spokeswoman Lynn Wood.
Hofreuter said Friday afternoon the surgeons' individual actions were prompted by "a lot of concern and frustration'' for the medical malpractice climate in West Virginia. Other hospitals in the area are expected to have similar results.
However, Wheeling Hospital is the only facility in the Upper Ohio Valley region with the capabilities for heart surgery, Hofreuter said. "This service will be removed from the area,'' he said.
The leaves of absence requests are for 30 days, with the option to extend.
The first leave of absence request was submitted on Monday - the 13th on Thursday.
Hofreuter said the immediate effects of the leaves of absence involve a reduction in the surgical services rendered by the hospital.
Most of the 13 surgeons are insured by the West Virginia Board of Risk and Insurance Management. Hofreuter said he has met with the surgeons, local lawmakers, the governor's office and the administration at BRIM in an effort to solve the problem.
"These gentlemen (surgeons) are concerned with the affordability of coverage," Hofreuter said. "We've had seven meetings in the last two weeks."
Hofreuter couldn't say if any other surgeons would step forward and request leaves of absence, adding, "In today's (medical malpractice insurance) climate, I'm ready for anything."
Wheeling Hospital owns its own ambulance company, enabling those patients who need services not offered at the hospital transportation to one that does. Washington Hospital in Washington, Pa. and Trinity West Medical Center in Steubenville both offer cardiac surgery.
"The hospital's not closing," Hofreuter said. "It's been here for 152 years and we're going to continue to serve the public."
Emergency medical services will still be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Hofreuter said Wheeling Hospital's sister facility, Belmont Community Hospital in Bellaire, could see an increase in patient volume in the coming weeks.
At OVMC, Felici said Friday the facility has received letters from about a dozen general, orthopedic, and cardio-thoracic surgeons indicating that as of Jan 1, they will be taking leaves of absence.
"The hospital has, as a result, put a plan into place to deal with this," he said.
All elective surgical procedures scheduled for early 2003 for the particular surgeons have been taken off OVMC's schedule, he said.
Felici said any patients coming to OVMC's EMSTAR unit for medical care will receive care. However, should they require surgical treatment, they would be transported to another facility, he said.
"Patients who present to the ER will be cared for. We're not changing any of our services. The ER will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he said. "We do have protocols in place to transfer patients if need be."
The hospital, he said, has alerted the air ambulance service it has dealt with for helicopter transport of patients requiring neurosurgical care "that the numbers of patients requiring transport are going to go up."
In some cases, patients might be transported to OVMC's sister facility, East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry, he said.
The cases will be dealt with on an individual basis. While some could be transferred to EORH, other patients could be taken to facilities in Morgantown, Columbus, and Pittsburgh, he said.
Felici said the hospital "understands the surgeons' plight" and supports their position to have the West Virginia Legislature reform medical liability insurance laws. He noted that the hospital's medical liability insurance premium runs $10,000 a day.
"We understand what they're trying to accomplish. I want to make that clear," he said.
As to how long the leaves of absences could continue, Felici couldn't say.
"The initial requests of the surgeons indicates it is month to month," he said.
The effects on operations at OVMC could be far-reaching.
He predicted a partial downturn in patient volume at OVMC as well as "some increased volume" at EORH.
"We've put into place a plan for increased support services at East Ohio," he said.
It is not just the loss of trauma care, obstetrics, and other care at the hands of an evil lawyer industry. Its all of us, in every aspect of our lives, in everything we do. It is very clear why the democrats want to replace honest judges with utterly corrupt party hacks, oops I meant distinguished "activist" judges.
Massive tort reform now!
It's also evil. Time to remove attorney discipline from the bar association trade groups and place this under true tough consumer control. Like any other industry.
My son broke his foot at a summer camp this summer. It happened on a church playground. The day before he broke his foot, we had went to the ocean. His tennis shoes were still wet the next morning but his wet socks were dry, so he went to class wearing his wet socks. He broke his foot while colliding with another kid. It was an accident. I took him to the emergency room and figured that all these insurance premiums I've been paying all these years and never used, well, I figured they should be able to pay for an x-ray or two plus whatever the emergency room costs.
Well, after paying everything the insurance wouldn't pay, I got a letter in the mail from some third party outfit the insurance company has secured who wanted to know specifically how it happened, where it happened, names addresses and telephone numbers so they can go after the church and squeeze some money out of them.
It was an accident. I pay high enough premiums. My insurance company should be able to pay for it without resorting to suing a church over it.
Lawyers treated on a contingency basis. If you live, you owe us one-third of your income for the rest of your life!
They are already planning to do that in California and Texas I believe. Since the population is exploding (read: illegals) there aren't enough medical professionals to care for them. They want to import doctors and nurses from Mexico.
Let me introduce you to EternalVigilance.
Thats great. Now what, teachers, nurses, on and on.
(As someone said before)>Now if only they would decide to import lawyers, maybe someone would begin to scream.
As I said above, there's an attitude of wanting something for nothing. Add a dash of class envy (doctors and insurance companies are rich, and I'm not), and you have the formula for lawsuit abuse.
Truly incompetent doctors should be held accountable, but that consideration - and justice - are irrelevant to the trial lawyers of America.
[sigh] See my post #50...
Like I said above, I just had the bad luck to run into some WV doozies, I reckon...
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