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.
He'll be back; His Klan chapter is waiting for him.
Will the guv'na pay for insurance premiums for the surgeons and other docs? The dirty little secret of medical liability insurance is that only 30% of the premiums go to (allegedly) injured plaintiffs. The trial lawyers get their 30-40% of course. But the costs of the DEFENSE attorneys is equal to the payouts to the plaintiffs attorneys!!
God forbid the pathetic excuse for a governor in Pennsylvania would enact tort reform to lower the income of his lawyer buddies.
It would work like a charm, not to mention being simple justice. My favorite reform is to remove lawyer discipline fro the crooked bar assocation trade groups ans placing it under true consumer control, just like any othe industry.
The rest of us can go pound sand.
Sometimes mending it's ways becomes less likely because those left behind are the worse voters and politicians.
Brilliant point.
Always watch what politicians actually do, not what they say they do. No member of Congress (and their families) has ever been in an HMO. Not only that but they have outstanding life-long heath insurance plans, and have free use of military medical facilities. This also includes the magnificent Walter Reed Army/Bethesda Naval/National Institutes of Healtyh Complex in Bethesda Maryland.
In Canada the socialists similarly bypass the waiting lists for instant first rate care at The National Defense Hospital in Ottawa.
The only real money went to the crooked lawyers who, like feudal robber barons, have long totally controlled both West Virginia and Mississippi as their 3rd world imperialist plantations, their personal lucrative fiefdoms.
The enlaved serfs (read law-abidding citizens) are left with even worse medical care than before (already the worst in the USA).
Sure, this is absolutely contrary to the limited government principles I espouse. But I don't see better options available.
Ha! That will happen when winged angels fly out of my b*tt!
I was listening to a talk radio show on the way home from work yesterday. A lawyer called in and made a very interesting observation. He stated that insurance companies make money by investing, not directly from the premiums they charge. The premiums are invested and the return on the investment is their real profit, and that almost all of the premiums are eventually paid out for the cost of administration, defending claims, defending lawsuits, and huge awards.
His main point was that since the stock market took a tumble in the last couple years, plus the interest rates on fixed accounts is minimal, the insurance companies aren't making their money where they normally make it - via investments. As a result, they are having to charge bigger premiums. Coupled with the inner city jury awards, its a killer combination. Just thought I'd pass it along as food for thought.
The idea, from the scumbag Democrat point of view, is to leave the staus quo in place for as long as possible. The scumbag lawyers, taking their wink and nod cue from the scumbag Democrats, will continue to relentlessly go after "malpractice" jackpots thereby driving up insurance rates until so many physicians throw in the towel that the sheeple beg for "universal health care".
Clearly, the scumbag Democrats will do nothing but fight tooth and claw against any reform that puts the reigns on their most reliable campaign contributors, the scumbag lawyers. See, the deal is that the scumbag lawyers kick back chunks of their jackpots to the scumbag Democrats in the form of "campaign contributions". Nice little circle jerk they got going there, no?
Meantime, we're screwed.
Insurance companies also started raising premiums almost immediately after 9/11/01. That event, in conjunction with stock market losses, had a devastating effect on all types of insurers. Curiously, I've seen no reports that plaintiffs' attorneys have suffered from 9/11 or the stock market's decline.
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