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.
That is the popular smokescreen being put out these days - have heard it quite often.
If you are going to accept that premise, you will have to accept that by investing insurance companies have kept the premiums down for a numbe of years also.
There is no one thing to blame here - there is enough greed to go around - but you will have to put most of it at the feet of greedy lawyers and crazy juries. Insurance companies have always invested and there have been ups and downs in the stock market - the only real change has been the escalating lawsuits and ridiculous awards.
I thought this was the case, but don't want to post something that I don't know for sure.
Generally, this argument is used to deflect the real issue, which is that lawyers in many states have virtually a free hand to bring suits and no responsibility whatsoever if they lose. I always laugh at the attorneys who say that bad doctors are the reason for so many suits...if that were true, then why is it that something like 90% of all medical malpractice claims are eventually resolved in favor of the physician? Are these attorneys willing to pay the costs of the 90% of doctors who win their claims?
Now maybe that would be a good thing - the attorney must pay the winner's costs.
The tort situation however is not as horrific as the true crisis of Mississippi or West Virginia.
There is almost a sick irony seeing the medical, legal and insurance industries duke this out - except that the loser never belongs to one of the afore mentioned groups.
These industries are notorious for not policing their ranks. They call themselves professionals, but lack any ethics/personal responsiblity enforcement in house - so they're beating each other up.
This is happening all over the US. I get the feeling we'll all be traveling to the same state (or Canada, that would be interesting) for medical needs.
Docs are human beings who have sworn an oath. But if you are a lawyer, I'd advise being quiet about it while being treated. While you're in no real danger, there is the potential of ordering an otherwise unnecessary Barium Enema. And I've heard that sometimes tickets can be sold to fellow docs for the show.
Many docs have treated child molestors. It's not much more of a stretch to treat lawyers.
I think we should be thankful that lawyers are practicing medicine as lawyers, not as doctors.
Trial lawyers know more about drugs and their side effects than the FDA--or so you'd think.
Keep in mind that our last two presidents, both Klintoons, are lawyers. They got major backing from the corrupt trial lawyers as well as from the lawyers in Congress and a major pass from those RATS in the Senate.
That can be said for my native state of Mississippi as well. That "characteristic" and the lack of any scrutiny by the trial lawyers makes it the sue haven it is.
Also, since the gummint cannot be sued for malpractice, the patients are toast if a doc makes a mistake and leaves them sicker. The only real bennie there is that the trial lawyers are left out, or are they? Hillary Care was so convoluted and complex, no one ever figured out what the lawyer's would get out of it, had it become law.
It's no coincidence that trial lawyers, aka plaintiffs' attorneys, give massive contributions to Democrat politicians exclusively.
I think that the trial lawyers are only too happy to be a part of the democrat effort to destroy the health care system, so that the democrats will then trot themselves out of the shadows to claim to be saviors!.
I strongly believe that national health care will be the cornerstone to a Hillary Clinton campaign!!
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