Hospital agrees to meet with ousted doctors Hospital agrees to meet with ousted doctors (December 03, 2004)

Anesthesiologists believe negotiations have been reopened

By Julie O'Shea

Officials at El Camino Hospital have agreed to meet with the group of anesthesiologists who were escorted off the job by police officers after contract talks broke down last week. The meeting is set for Monday.

What exactly will be discussed, however, is unclear. A lawyer representing the 19 ousted doctors said he believes the hospital wants to reopen negotiations. But an El Camino spokesperson said this isn't the case at all.

"I would say this time it's just a meeting," said Ann Fyfe, the hospital's vice president of business development. "It would be difficult to call it a renegotiation in light of the contract we signed."

The contract Fyfe is referring to is the one El Camino signed with nine new anesthesiologists on Nov. 20. The new doctors, the majority of whom abruptly left their jobs at Washington Hospital in Fremont, were hired on at El Camino one day after the previous group of doctors failed to meet the hospital's settlement deadline.

Those anesthesiologists, some who had been with El Camino for more than 20 years, were told their services would no longer be needed and were replaced by the new doctors who signed three-year employment deals.

The move has left a bad taste with many members of El Camino's medical staff, with some surgeons complaining that hospital administrators ruined a good relationship.

"This is just a nightmare," said Dr. Burt Brent, a reconstructive plastic surgeon who rebuilds children's ears. Brent said the surgeries he performs are high risk, and he relies on his trusted team of anesthesiologists to help him through each procedure.

"There is no way I can entrust my kids with these people (the new anesthesiologists)," Brent said last week.

Added Joseph Andresen, one of the anesthesiologists escorted off the job last week: "We're not just a presence in the operating room. Excellence comes from time and trust. You don't build a winning team over night."

Fyfe said the ousted physicians are welcome to come back to work under the new exclusive contract the hospital now has with the anesthesiology department, which maintains the doctors must accept the reimbursement rates of the same insurance carriers El Camino uses.

This has been a sticking point with the former group of doctors, who claim that some insurance carriers don't have high enough reimbursement rates to cover all the costs of their anesthesia services. Because of this, the doctors were billing the difference to each individual patient, and the hospital claims it received a string of complaints about this practice.

"Our objective is to get negotiations open again," said Charles Bond, the attorney representing the ousted doctors. "I do believe quality of care is the common ground that these two groups can meet on."

El Camino's Fyfe agreed that patient care is indeed a top priority. She added that the hospital has been pleased with the work the group of 19 anesthesiologists have been doing at El Camino. The two sides, she added, simply could not come to an agreement.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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