Physicians for a National Health Program
April 29, 2010
Dear PNHP board members and activists,
We're writing to call your attention to an extremely significant event in the Cleveland area, which is sadly an increasingly frequent experience of physicians working for corporate entities.
Dr. George Randt and his colleague are board-certified internists who have had a contractual relationship with St. John Medical Center covering some 2,500 patients for several years. These two doctors have excellent records with the hospital, high patient satisfaction and retention rates, and have never had an unfavorable review. Both were awarded bonuses in 2009, and Dr. Randt's contract was renewed in January of this year.
This past month they were notified by the president of their hospital, Mr. Cliff Coker, that their contracts were being terminated due to lack of productivity and their having incurred excessive overhead expense. In other words, they weren't sufficiently profit-driven. At a previous staff meeting, the staff physicians were told by the CFO to admit just "one more Medicare patient a month" to improve hospital revenues.
If you can, please join Dr. Randt, his patients, and others at a rally at St. John Medical Center, 29000 Center Ridge Road, Westlake, Ohio, this Sunday, May 2, at 1:00 p.m. to call for the reinstatement of these two physicians and for the elimination of policies which are justified solely on the basis of maximizing the profits of a health care system. Speakers at the rally include PNHP's congressional fellow, Dr. Margaret Flowers, and Dr. Carol Paris. (See the press release below for more information.)
Call Mr. Cliff Coker today and demand that these physicians be reinstated to their position. His office number is (440) 827-5008. He can also be reached by e-mailing
[email protected]We welcome you to share your views that patients should come before profits with the newspapers in the area by writing a letter to the editor to the The Plain Dealer or Sun News.
Dismissing these physicians without cause, merely to maximize hospital revenues, is the embodiment of the derangement of our system of health care finance. This was done without any semblance of due process. The livelihood and status of skilled professionals are being sacrificed to assure profitability; this is rapidly becoming the norm within our profit-driven system. As a result, it poses the gravest threat to professionalism and patient primacy. These issues would be greatly alleviated under a single-payer health financing system that places value on health outcomes, continuity of care, and quality.
Please join us in calling for the reinstatement of Dr. Randt, a longtime PNHP member, and his colleague and an end to health care practices that place the goals of profitability over the care of patients.
Health care for all,
Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator, PNHP
Johnathon Ross, M.D.
Past-president, PNHP
State Coordinator, PNHP Ohio
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Patients, physicians and health care activists to protest St. John Medical Center's plans to eliminate primary care practices
Cuts would leave 2,500 patients without their trusted primary care physician
Contacts:
Drew Smith, Mobilize Ohio Movement,
[email protected]Heather Ives,
[email protected]WESTLAKE - Patients, health care professionals, and area residents will gather across the street from St. John Medical Center next Sunday to protest the sudden closure of two primary care practices that have served the community for over two decades.
Two primary care physicians, including George Randt, M.D., were told on April 1 by the president of St. John Medical Center, Cliff Coker, that their employment contracts with Cuyahoga Physicians Network at the St. John West Shore Hospital were being terminated and that they will be laid off effective April 30 because they were not productive enough.
The decision made by St. John Medical Center to sever the relationship between approximately 2,500 patients and their primary care physicians will have unforeseen consequences for both patient and physician alike, and may have negative consequences due to the loss of the patients' established medical homes. Many of the affected patients have been cared for by the same physician for over 20 years.
"Several months ago, at a staff meeting, the CFO of St. John's told all of the physicians attending that the hospital could make a profit if the physicians would admit just one more Medicare patient a month," said Randt, who left the meeting questioning the moral justification and legal propriety of this request.
Randt said many of his patients have signed petitions, written letters and made phone calls to St. John's executive officers demanding a reversal of the decision with no response.
Dr. Margaret Flowers, congressional fellow for the Physicians for a National Health Program, a group that favors a single-payer, Medicare-for-All health system, will speak at the May 2 event. Referring to the proposed layoffs, she said, "This is what happens under our current fractured, money-driven system of health care financing. Doctors are required to see increasing numbers of patients and spend less time with them. "
The most common way hospital executives measure physician productivity is the number of patients they see each hour, Flowers said, although some executives have been known to criticize doctors for not ordering a sufficient number of tests, even though such tests may not be medically warranted.
Flowers is one of the speakers attending the rally. Her colleague Dr. Carol Paris will be in attendance too. Invitations have also gone out to all of the patients who will be losing their medical home, as well as citizens throughout the area and legislators.
"What St. John's board is doing is unacceptable," said Drew Smith of the Mobilize Ohio Movement, the group that is planning the rally. "To leave 2,500 patients medically homeless because some don't believe that primary care is profitable enough goes against everything in the hospital's mission statement. It's a terrible blow to the physician-patient relationship. These primary care practices should be reinstated immediately."
Smith added: "If we had a single, comprehensive health plan for everyone, which spent more money on providing care and less on administrative overhead, we wouldn't be facing this kind of situation."
The Mobilize Ohio Movement supports House Bill 159 (The Health Care for All Ohioans Act), which would establish a single-payer, Medicare-style health plan for all residents of Ohio from birth to death, with no out-of-pocket expenses, and would strive to ensure that every patient has a primary care physician.
St. John sent a letter out to all of the patients of the primary care practices dated April 19 stating their personal physicians would no longer be able to see them as of the end of the month. The letter failed to mention that the hospital was closing the practices for financial reasons.
For more information:
Mobilize Ohio Movement, www.mobilizeohio.org
SPAN-Ohio, www.spanohio.org
Physicians for a National Health Program, www.pnhp.org
Healthcare-Now, www.healthcare-now.org
Physicians for a National Health Program
29 E Madison Suite 602, Chicago, IL 60602
Phone (312) 782-6006 | Fax: (312) 782-6007
www.pnhp.org | info {at} pnhp.org
© PNHP 2010