Skip to comments.
Doctors Taking Leaves of Absence to Protest Rising Malpractice Premiums; A City Without Surgeons
Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer & News-Register ^
| Dec. 28, 2002
| Justin Anderson and Michelle Blum
Posted on 12/28/2002 7:22:06 AM PST by mountaineer
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120, 121-140, 141-160, 161-171 next last
To: mountaineer
What do you call a lawyer with an I.Q. of 50?
Answer: "your Honor."
The crooked judges are a huge part of the problem. The trial lawyers give big cash personal "loans" and gulf beach condos to the corrupted judges in Mississippi.
To: btcusn
Actually I am finding out that Pennsylvania has a huge problem, especially in the rural and mountain regions.
But the lawyers must have their yachts and Bentleys, That's whats really the first concern for the Pennsylvania (or Mississippi... or West Virginia) legislature filled with corrupt lawyers: Wolves guarding the henhouse!
To: mountaineer
Look for your death rate to plummet while the MD's are out. History has repeatedly shown that when hospital personel have gone on strike and slowed down admissions, fewer people in the region have died.
The sad fact is our modern medical paradigm of practice kills more people every year than any other single cause.
To: btcusn
Lawyer turkey shoot bump. Now there's a good use for the 2nd Amendment!
To: mountaineer
bttt
Surgeon Walkout Could Lead to Hospital Layoffs
By JOHN McCABE
A walkout by area surgeons could lead to reduced hours or temporary layoffs for some of the 3,500 employees at Wheeling's two medical facilities.
Dr. Donald Hofreuter, administrator and chief executive officer of Wheeling Hospital, said he and other hospital administrators went from department to department Friday explaining the impact the possible loss of 13 surgeons would have on the facility.
Surgeons in the hospital's orthopedic, general and cardio-thoracic departments plan to take leaves of absence starting Jan. 1 to protest rising medical malpractice rates in West Virginia.
While Wheeling Hospital would make no immediate cuts in staff or personnel, it would continue to staff on an as-needed basis, Hofreuter said.
"We have told our employees that we will do our best to make sure all full-time and all part-time employees get a paycheck. It may be a reduced paycheck, but it will be a paycheck,'' he said.
Wheeling Hospital, which is the city of Wheeling's largest employer, has 2,300 on staff.
At Ohio Valley Medical Center, incoming President and CEO Brian Felici said 12 surgeons have planned leaves of absence starting Jan. 1.
Those doctors are in OVMC's cardio-thoracic, orthopedic and general surgery departments.
As with Wheeling Hospital, Felici said OVMC's 1,200 employees would be scheduled according to the hospital's caseload.
"We plan to be staffed according to out schedule and the volume of surgeries we have,'' he said. "When all our surgeons are available we will staff accordingly.''
A walkout by surgeons would also impact local residents.
Lilly Rowan of Wheeling, who was shopping at the Mount de Chantal Kroger store Friday evening, said the surgeons planning to take leave should consider the problems they could bring by forcing people to travel for medical procedures.
"I don't think it's right for them to just leave. ... We all have problems, and the last thing this area needs right now is to lose its doctors,'' she said.
Wheeling Mayor Nick Sparachane agrees. Not only does this effect everyone presently in the area, it could also have a negative effect on the city's attempts to attract new businesses to the area, he said.
"This is an issue that the governor and the Legislature need to address,'' he said. "Our health care system in Wheeling is second to none, and we don't want to lose that.''
http://www.news-register.net/news/story/1228202002_new03.asp
To: Black Bart
May be, but when you're facing living with what is, essentially, a broken neck and the possibility of quadriplegia looming with every pain-wracked step, you are willing to RISK death at the hands of the best surgeon you can find. Just fix it, please, I don't care what it costs.
You worry about what it costs afterward, when the bills come in, or when the outcome isn't what you hoped.
To: ChemistCat
very true.
To: friendly; All
To: mountaineer
Ferocious and mesmerizing street fighting as the already inadequate West Virginia health care "system" collapses in order to buy lawyer Rolls Royces and mansions.
Please keep me informed. Thanks!
To: btcusn
re: That was in Pennsylvania, where the same thing is happening. Grand View hospital in Sellersville, Pa will have NO surgery at ALL from what I understand. 250,000$ a year insurance costs.
Shoot the lawyers!! )))
But wait til the trauma surgeons leave before shooting them. Aim for the gut.
To: Mamzelle; friendly; pubmom; MadelineZapeezda; sonsofliberty2000; GVNR; All
Looks like the Teamsters thugs' friend, Ed Rendell, has
come to the rescue in Pennsylvania! According to tonight's news reports, surgeons in Scranton were threatening a "leave of absence" walkout, just like those in the West Virginia towns of Weirton, Wheeling and Glen Dale, but Rendell promised them a reduction in insurance premiums. The walkout appears to have been averted, for now.
If any of us in the Northern Panhandle of WV are in need of surgery, it's good to know we can travel to Washington or Pittsburgh, Pa. I just hope we survive the trip!
From the Philly Daily News:
Health insurers would have to pay to help reduce crippling medical malpractice premiums for the hardest-hit doctors, under a plan proposed by Gov.-elect Ed Rendell. The one-year reduction, which Rendell acknowledged was a "short-term" step to deal with "a raging malpractice insurance crisis threatening to erode patient access to health care," would cost about $220 million in 2003, he said. [Would cost whom??]
At a joint news conference with Gov. Schweiker, Rendell said he hoped his plan and others flowing from his task force examining the subject would "send a message" to physicians who are thinking about giving up their Pennsylvania practices because of the high cost of insurance. "We hear you," Rendell said. "We empathize with your problem. Help is on the way."
Hey, Ed, how about sending a message to the vulture ATLA members who fund the Democrats' campaign chests, instead of sending messages to the doctors?
To: mountaineer
I would not trust Rendell further than I would throw a stick. The Pennsylvania docs would be advised to not believe a word this weasel is saying.
Incidentally the money would come from the health insurance plans, who are up in arms at one more attack in the broad based plan to drive them all out of business.
Time for some Atlas Shrugged action here.
To: mountaineer
bttt to a vital thread
To: friendly
The Associated Press and other national media have picked up on the story:
AP) Surgeons at four hospitals began a strike Wednesday to protest malpractice insurance costs, and most operations in northern West Virginia were canceled or were being moved. In Pennsylvania, a similar walkout was averted.
At least 24 surgeons in the coming week will begin 30-day leaves of absence at Wheeling Hospital, Ohio Valley Medical Center, Weirton Medical Center and Reynolds Memorial Hospital, according to numbers provided by the hospitals.
Emergency rooms remained open, but the action was forcing the diversion of most elective and trauma surgeries to hospitals in Morgantown, Ohio or Pennsylvania.
With the holiday, patients likely won't feel the impact until next week. But the surgeons expect lawmakers to get their message: From insurance rates to liberal liability laws, the state has created a hostile working environment, and doctors are ready to leave.
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, surgeons around the state backed off their threat to close their practices Wednesday just hours before they were scheduled to walk off the job.
Strike plans were canceled after Gov.-elect Ed Rendell promised to fight for $220 million in aid for doctors this year. The aid offer is tentative.
Rendell, a Democrat, doesn't take office for another three weeks and still must persuade a Republican-controlled Legislature to accept his plan. But there were signs that the offer had averted a large-scale work stoppage.
"We are going to go back to work," said Margo Opsasnick, chief executive at Delta Medix, one of several Scranton surgical groups that had planned to close Jan. 1 because of high insurance costs.
"We are going to take Mr. Rendell's offer as one of good faith, and keep seeing patients," she said Tuesday.
Other physician groups around the state followed suit.
Scranton's biggest hospital, Community Medical Center, notified state officials Tuesday that its neurosurgeons had also agreed to keep working, avoiding a planned closure of northeast Pennsylvania's only trauma center.
"It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders," said hospital spokeswoman Jane Gaul.
No such relief came to surgeons in West Virginia.
"There's no quick fix to this," Dr. Jeffrey Wilps said after he and other surgeons met for more than an hour Tuesday with state Insurance and Retirement Services Director Tom Susman.
"They're just trying to pacify the physicians now. They don't realize it's come to an acute crisis situation," Wilps said. "West Virginia is chasing the doctors — and the businesses in general — out of the state."
Most of the surgeons are insured through a special program created by lawmakers last year. The program recently reduced rates for those policies, but some premiums are still among the highest in the country — up to $133,978, for neurosurgeons.
Susman spent Tuesday trying to head off the strike but repeatedly found surgeons reluctant to wait for legislative solutions.
Lawmakers convene next Wednesday in Charleston. Surgeons in Weirton said Susman asked them to postpone their walkout until Feb. 1, a delay several found unacceptable.
"If we stay silent until Feb. 1, and nothing happens, then they pass us by for another year," said Dr. Samuel Licata, who plans to join the walkout by taking a leave of absence beginning next Monday.
Licata, a board-certified general surgeon for seven years, has seen his annual premiums soar from $18,000 to $58,000 without a single lawsuit filed against him. He urged the state to enact laws that make it harder to sue and cap damage awards.
"People don't understand. Yes, doctors do make a lot of money. But this isn't about us trying to make more money," Licata said. "It's about trying to keep our heads above water."
Many surgeons work at more than one hospitals, and therefore the total number of doctors who had requested leaves was unclear. At Wheeling Hospital, 18 of its 20 orthopedic, cardiac and general surgeons requested leaves. Weirton Hospital said it has 44 surgeons, and 10 have requested leaves. The other two hospitals weren't able to confirm their total number of surgeons.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/01/national/main534939.shtml
To: friendly
To: End The Hypocrisy
The reality is that medical schools no longer have waiting lists of applicants. The "Best and the Brightest" no longer tend to apply. 50% of all new physicians are women; this is expected to rise in years to come. The quality of the new docs is far poorer than in years past.
To: End The Hypocrisy
Furthermore would you waste your entire youth studying like a dog, spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on education, spend four years in college + four years in brutal med school + four years of even more brutal internship & residency, working 80 hour weeks for the rest of your life thereafter, only to have your life's savings and career stolen by trial lawyers and at the mercy of managed care and monsters like Hillary and her democrats? It is no wonder the docs have had enough.
Get real!
To: friendly
To: End The Hypocrisy
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120, 121-140, 141-160, 161-171 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson