Concerns are growing following news that Summa Health System moved forward with a decision to replace its emergency room physicians on New Year’s Day.
Summa decided to part ways with Summa Emergency Associates (SEA), a physician provider that has worked with Summa over the past 40 years, last week. The decision was released in a memo to staff stating that physicians with U.S. Acute Care Solutions (USACS) would take over beginning on Jan. 1 at its five emergency rooms. The contract between Summa and SEA was set to expire on Dec. 31 if they were unable to reach a new agreement.
Summa Health System released the following statement to WKYC Channel 3 on Monday evening:
"The transition to USACS continues to be successful. Our ED volumes are as expected with no gaps in service and we continue to coordinate with local squads. We also have selected a new program director for the emergency medicine residency program with strong ties to the Akron community. We are very appreciative of the support we have received throughout this transition from both inside the organization and across the community.
We have no opinion or interest regarding this evening's meeting held by SEA. As we have previously stated, this was a contract dispute, with negotiations breaking down due to contract demands made by SEA that were unreasonable, inconsistent with national standards and would cause concerns from a compliance perspective."
Dr. Jeff Wright with SEA is concerned that patient care will be adversely impacted by the replacement. Wright notes that Akron City Hospital has one of the biggest emergency departments in the state. More than 60 full-time physicians are part of SEA. While it's unclear how many USACS physicians are working at Summa's emergency departments, USACS spokesman Marty Richmond stated that they ares "staffing all Summa sites at full strength" with their existing physicians.
Wright said SEA received the 80-page contract from Summa on Nov. 26. He stated that SEA wanted a longer contract (more than 3 years) to build stability for physicians to help with the recruiting process in the future. Wright claims there was only one face-to-face conversation with Summa’s CEO Thomas Malone in December.
Concerns were also brought up in regards to the CEO for USACS, Dr. Dominic Bagnoli, who is the husband for the current chief medical officer for Summa, Dr. Vivian von Gruenigen.
Wright said the schedule for physicians with SEA are made two months in advance so if Summa were to decide to resume negotiations, physicians would be available to come back to work.
"What we hope to see is what’s best for our community," said Wright.