Med center losing ER doctors

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Med center losing ER doctors

By MELISSA KLEIN

mklein@thejournalnews.com

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: March 27, 2005)

VALHALLA — Most of the emergency room doctors at Westchester Medical Center are leaving rather than taking jobs with the company that will be running the department beginning Friday.

The impending departure of about nine doctors marks another shift in a major department as the medical center wades through a fiscal crisis. The cardiac surgery department saw two doctors arrive earlier this year, but three left, prompting what is expected to be a temporary decline in patients in a money-making area.

Also, two neurosurgeons will be leaving in May, potentially creating a gap in a profit center for the hospital if their positions are not filled quickly.

Mary Brown, the hospital's interim president, said there were some 800 doctors on staff — with 350 who could be considered very active — and it was the normal course of business that some would leave.

"We just recruit new docs," Brown said. "I'm not concerned about that. That's sort of normal ebb and flow."

The neurosurgeons, Dr. David Harter and Dr. Bennie Chiles III, said they were not leaving because of the hospital's financial situation but were pursuing other opportunities. Harter, the hospital's only pediatric neurosurgeon, is going to practice at New York University Medical Center. Chiles, a spinal specialist, will take up private practice in Westchester.

Brown said the hospital was recruiting a new pediatric neurosurgeon.

The departure of the emergency room doctors can be tied, at least in part, to the financial crisis. The medical center is expected to lose $60 million this year and is seeking outside assistance from government entities to keep it afloat.

The hospital has signed a three-year contract with Emergency Medical Associates or EMA, of Livingston, N.J., to provide doctors and other staff in the emergency department. The contract costs $1.2 million annually, a savings of $1.2 million over what was paid to the previous group of emergency department doctors. That savings is counted as part of the hospital's cost-cutting initiatives in the 2005 budget.

All of the dozen or so emergency room doctors were offered jobs with EMA, and three of them accepted.

Six doctors, including Dr. Timothy Haydock who was chairman of the department, have taken jobs at White Plains Hospital Center. Haydock will run the White Plains emergency room.

"They were unhappy with the outsourcing and apparently with the opportunities that were put in front of them," said Jon Schandler, president of White Plains Hospital.

Haydock did not return several telephone calls seeking comment.

He led the group of doctors that ran the emergency department on a contract basis for the hospital. The group submitted a bid to continue running the department but was not selected.

Brown said cost was not the only factor in choosing EMA. She said the hospital was looking for a team that would focus on excellence in clinical skills, patient satisfaction and computerization.

EMA provides staff for 19 hospitals in New York and New Jersey. It runs the emergency departments at Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt and Sound Shore Medical Center in New Rochelle as well as St. Vincent's Medical Center in New York City which, like Westchester Medical Center, is a trauma center.

Dr. Michael Gerardi, EMA's vice president, said the company was still in the process of recruiting doctors to work at the medical center. Some of those who begin working Friday will stay just until permanent staff people are hired, he said.

"We're going to have the coverage equal to what was there before," he said.

Gerardi said he wanted the emergency department to attract patients with more ordinary ailments in addition to the trauma cases that the hospital is known for treating. The emergency department had 26,000 visits last year.

"We want people to show up with that bad ankle sprain," he said.

John Federspiel, the president of Hudson Valley hospital, said patient satisfaction in the emergency department had improved after EMA took over in 2003.

"I think they hire not only quality physicians but also affable physicians," Federspiel said. "I think they hire a caring, compassionate physician who also has that personality that's able to interact with numerous types of individuals in a typical busy ER."

More information  

Emergency Medical Associates will run the Westchester Medical Center's emergency department beginning April 1. The company

• Was founded in 1977 and is based in Livingston, N.J. President and CEO is Dr. Charles F. V. Grunau.

• Provides staffing for 19 hospitals in New York and New Jersey. Staff includes doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

[Guest NYTruckie]

I don't think it will really matter to most. Unless your Corp./Company uses WMC as your Medical Control Doctor. Even then you could follow Dr. Haydock to White Plains. I think it's bad for the patients (you get what you pay for)