It's been six days since New Year's Day when the leadership at Summa Health replaced the Emergency Room physician group. Some physicians are now publicly taking sides, as noted in last night's medical staff meeting as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal.
More than 250 voted "no-confidence" in the CEO and leadership team, and called for their resignation. The medical staff totals more than 1000. The vote occurred after a two hour contentious meeting, which at times, possibly sounded like a political convention. Of note, the resident physicians already voted "no-confidence" in the CEO earlier this week.
In addition to the ER physicians being out, it was also announced that the contract for the respiratory and critical care physician group will not be renewed. However, the anesthesia group signed on for another year. What will be the fate of other specialists at Summa? Time will tell.
The best quote from the night came from primary care physician Dr. Rodney Ison. (disclaimer: I worked with Dr. Ison during my Family Medicine residency at Summa Barberton). He called the "no-confidence" vote "ridiculous" and also said this:
"Not once were patients and patient care and what's in the best interest of our patients in the room tonight. We can't have political wars and political battles of 'What's in My best interest and What's in Your best interest' - We're Physicians."
As I stated in my previous post, the Akron community is now seeing this Civil War play out in a very public way. They are seeing the grabbing for profit, the push for power, and the play for politics. But what about patient-centeredness? The longer this drags out, especially in a public way, no one wins, the patient loses, trust in Summa Health plummets, and the closer we'll get to the "End Of An Akron Icon."