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.
What happened to the doctors is just the tip of the iceberg. Why would any company ever, ever relocate there? If you want cheap labor you go to China or Mexico or ANYWHERE BUT PHONY MEGA-LAWSUIT MISSISSIPPI!
There is "good ol' boy" greedy mafia of crooked lawyers and corrupt judiciary who have completely exploited the state for generations. You good folks have some amazing deinfecting to do (so do we all), if you are ever to be anything other than the permanently poorest state in the union.
Tort reform now! And I mean real tort reform!
No suit should proceed past filing without an explicit sworn statement of a medical doctor verifying that the allegations of negligence have merit (one way of dealing with the whole causation issue). I don't suggest government interference with the contingency fee arrangement, because that's a contract between attorney and client.
Doctors found negligent by a jury or court in a civil proceeding should be investigated by their licensing authority, so we don't have the problem of incompetent M.Ds, osteopaths, etc., continuing to practice on unwitting patients, leading to even more med mal suits.
The problem with this is the maddening thing about the med malpractice industry is that the suits and payouts generally bear no relationship to competence.
Thus doctors who agree see the most high risk (sickest) patients are the most likely to be sued. Another example is the gold mine (for crooked lawyers) who make mega-bucks off of neurosurgeons (brain injury almost always has some residual brain damage, by definition) and obstetricans (congenital blameless birth defects equals lawyer yachts).
Yeah, the Byrd Brain Institute. LOL, I crack myself up.
Actually just about everything under the sun is named for this huckster!
Medicare yes; Social Security I am not sure. Some federal employees definitely do not contribute to Social Security like railway workers. I know Congress does not have social security. Instead the sc*mb*gs have a killer retirement package, plus mega-rich life long health benefits (things Hillary would never allow us little people!).
What I've heard (unconfirmed now) is that the normal licenses for docs up there are being replaced with 120 day temp permits while they rework the rules to enslave the doctors that remain.
Atlas needs to shrug a lot more.
This is a do or die issue for the Republicans, whether or not they are clever enough realize it. Hillary is counting on the lawyers to destroy the health care system, so that she can try to ride in on a white horse with "single payer reform" as a big campaign issue, I believe.
Thank God Bush is much, much smarter than the false picture touted by the democrats and their sycophant media trolls. And Bush has a fellow Harvard grad in the form of Doc Frist to fight it out in the Senate. (Lott was a sleezy, dumb Mississippi lawyer)
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