15 Doctors Fired From Chicago-Area Health System
https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/workforce/83576
At least 15 physicians have been fired from Edward-Elmhurst Health as the suburban Chicago-based health system moves to cut costs, sources told MedPage Today.
The doctors, who worked across its seven “Immediate Care” or urgent care sites, will be replaced by advanced practice nurses,
according to an email sent by hospital leadership that was shared with MedPage Today. The physicians were informed late last week that they would be terminated as of April 1, 2020.
A physician who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the doctors were “broadsided” by the news. While they harbored some concerns that a few of the slower urgent care sites might be turned over to non-physician clinicians, they weren’t expecting so many of the sites to be impacted and for such a large number of doctors to be let go.
In their email, hospital system CEO Mary Lou Mastro, MS, RN, and Chief Medical Officers Robert Payton, MD, and Daniel Sullivan, MD, pointed to patient cost concerns as the reason for eliminating the jobs: “Patients have made it very clear that they want less costly care and convenient access for lower-acuity issues (sore throats, rashes, earaches), which are the vast majority of cases we treat in our Immediate Cares.”
“Beginning in the spring of 2020, we will move to a delivery model in which care is provided by Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) at select Immediate Care locations,” they wrote.
Leadership also stated in the email that they are “working closely with these physicians to assist them with finding alternative positions within Edward-Elmhurst Health or outside our system,” but doctors noted that they face a saturated Chicago healthcare market and they’re likely to have to relocate.
Keith Hartenberger, a spokesperson for Edward-Elmhurst Health, confirmed the layoffs: “We continue to assess our care delivery models in the interest of providing cost-effective care to our patients. We shared with physicians that we have plans to change the model next year at some outpatient sites and are working with anyone affected to find alternative placement.”
The move is becoming a more familiar one as some health systems try to save money by relying more heavily on non-physician clinicians.
Last year, 27 pediatricians at a chain of clinics in the Dallas area lost their jobs and were replaced by nurse practitioners — even though the chain subsequently changed its name to MD Kids Pediatrics.
Rebekah Bernard, MD, wrote in Medical Economics that she spoke with three of the pediatricians who were fired: “They told me that they and their physician colleagues were completely shocked by the sudden firing. ‘We thought we were going to retire from this place,’ one told me.”
Also in 2018, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Atrium Health ended a nearly 40-year contract with a 100-member physician group, signing up instead with Scope Anesthesia, which says it’s dedicated to forming partnerships with certified registered nurse anesthetists. Atrium said it too was looking to reduce patient costs.
“This trend of shuttering hospital departments and firing physicians to save money is dangerous and short-sighted,” Bernard wrote.
Purvi Parikh, MD, of NYU Langone Health in New York City, and a board member of Physicians for Patient Protection, which advocates against other healthcare providers replacing doctors, said that
although non-physician clinicians “are vital members of the healthcare team, they are not trained to be substitutes of physicians and as a result diagnoses are missed and improper treatments and tests [are] prescribed.”
Parikh said patients “have the right to choose a facility that is physician-only or one with physician-led care. In Chicago, luckily there are other options among competitors.”
Filed under: General Problems
They don’t need physicians anymore. For low income people, even broken bones do not require a physician. PA, and nurses are a lot cheaper than physicians, and a few minimum wage “community health workers” can fill up space in clinics to give the appearance of full staffing. This strategy only appears profitable, because there are no metrics to measure the deaths, delayed diagnosis and other adverse events.
This is the American profit driven system, people! Unmitigated corporate greed, left many areas of the US without physicians. They are gas-lighting us all, replacing qualified personnel with random lower cost employees. They did this first with the low income clinics for Medicaid recipients. Now they are doing it to all of the lesser insured. At least it is adequate 90% of the time, any illness or injury that requires a physician can be ignored or passed along.
I very recently changed my primary care physician that I have been a patient of for 32 YEARS. He passed oxycontin out like candy some 15 years ago or so but, NOW he is terrified of the DEA because of the 2016 CDC “guideline” for opioid prescribing physicians. Oxycontin is not why I have changed primary physician though. As was recently written about, he is “burnt out”. He has 3 PA’s that in my opinion are idiots! I have taken a particular benzodiazepine prescribed by this (ex) primary doctor after being reduced to a count of 15, 5mg, “benzos” per month “for my worst” days of severe back muscle spasm for over 20 years for muscle relaxation after being placed into the “failed back surgery syndrome”. It might be “called” that but, the pain is everyday, relentless, and with the “guideline” has cost me my business of over 37 years. I called my pharmacist as usual a few months ago to request the medication (as I HAVE to EVERY month, no refills) and the doctor REFUSED to prescribe a whole 15 count,, 5mg “benzo”. My wife had an appointment with this same physician a few days later after the doctor refused to prescribe the medication who has also been her primary physician for about 32 YEARS also. I went with her as I always do. She seen one of the PA’s instead of the primary care physician. After her visit with this (idiot) PA, I asked very nicely….why, my medication was no longer being prescribed. Her explanation was that I have not had a physical in over a year. It had been about 14 months. She refused to prescribe the medication taken for decades to me that truly helps with muscle spasm, (a whole 15 count, 5 mg, per month) UNTIL I made an appoint and came in for a physical. I explained to her my Mother had been sick and we, my wife and I had moved in with her until her death, at home February 27th, 2019. She, my “Mom” was terrified of going into an assistant living facility and I was fortunate enough to be able to help her, my wife and I until her death at her home. I explained this is why I have not been in for a physical like I have done for decades…..yearly. It made NO DIFFERENCE to this ( idiot, non caring PA). I explained that “is there not a possibility of a bad outcome, possible seizure to just cut me off”?. This statement did NOT affect her decision to not prescribe until I had a physical! BS!!!!!! I felt like I was being blackmailed, so I changed primary physicians. My wife was still under the care of my ex primary physician so I could not “make waves”. TODAY, my wife changed her primary physician so I WILL file a complaint with the NC Medical Board. I expect NOTHING, positive ( for me) to happen but, I do not like being blackmailed, held for ransom with a 30 plus year record of “seeing” the SAME primary physician. SO, yes, PA’s are NOT physicians, they just help their employers “make more money. TRUE narrative! This BS is simply “out of hand”!!!!!!!!
Cut costs??? I dare say to raise INCOME for certain hospital OWNER types on the backs of the UNDERSTAFFED. We all know by now Health Care is a Golden Goose.