ER Docs Oppose Tenet Staffing Plan
A group of emergency physicians has banded together against an apparent plan by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. to use a staffing company to fill many of its physician positions at hospitals it owns in California.
The American Academy of Emergency Medicine and the California chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians have created a group called the Coalition for Quality Hospital Care to combat the move, which officials say could displace long-established physicians from practicing at Tenet-owned hospitals.
“We're surprised and alarmed to learn of a corporate plan by Tenet to replace local contracted providers of emergency medicine with a single contract at all Tenet hospitals in California without enough input from the affected medical staffs and physicians,” said Cal-ACEP President Michael Osmundson, M.D. “Leaving the medical staff out of such decisions could result in patients losing access to their local doctors.”
Staffing firms such as San Diego-based AMN Healthcare have seen their physician staffing businesses grow rapidly as hospitals are looking for a stable pool of permanent or rotating physicians to care for their patients. AMN's locum tenens staffing revenue has grown by more 47% during the first half of 2014.
However, the practice has concerned physician lobbies, who fear the moves will displace long-established physicians. The California Medical Association chimed in on the issue earlier this summer, when it posted on the website that is was “concerned about the serious negative impact on quality of care should Tenet unilaterally and abruptly terminate existing service providers who have been providing care in Tenet’s hospital communities, some for many decades.”
A letter sent to Tenet by AAEM President Mark Reiter, M.D., an emergency physician who practices in Tennessee, did not name any of the physician staffing company candidates by name, but did note that the likely winner of the business is based outside of California. He urged Tenet to abandon its plan.
“Changes to hospital-based physician practices should be based on issues of quality and performance, and not simply financial considerations,” Reiter wrote.
A Tenet spokesperson did not respond to an email and phone call seeking comment. But the Coalition for Quality Hospital Care suggested the company is looking to use national staffing companies to outsource anesthesiology, hospitalist and emergency department services at 11 hospitals in California as a money-saving measure. Coalition spokesperson Zinie C. Sampson said the move could displace hundreds of physicians.
Tenet, which purchased another for-profit hospital operator, Vanguard Health, late last year for $1.8 billion, saw its revenue grow nearly 67% for the second quarter ending June 30.
And while the company is also seeing growing patient visits as a result of the Affordable Care Act, it lost $50 million during the first half of the year. Moreover, it assumed Vanguard's $2.5 billion in debt as part of the deal. That, along with the need to better integrate the Vanguard acquisitions into its operations is likely pressuring Tenet to find ways to cut operating costs and return to profitability.
Sampson said she was uncertain whether Tenet may decide to employ staffing companies at the hospitals it operates outside of California.
