Elective surgeries cancelled due to lack of anesthesiology

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PikminOC

PikminOC

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Doximity just posted an article yesterday on a hospital that had to shut down their elective procedures due to lack of anesthesiology. Is this happening near you too?
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It’s probably more complicated than that. We currently have no beds in the icu. We have no nursing staff for the Ed.

We are actually NOT in the one of the highest covid area. But certainly upticking. In a case with thoracic surgeon, who is contemplating to do a case or not, since ICU is completely full.
 
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Heist said:
Doximity just posted an article yesterday on a hospital that had to shut down their elective procedures due to lack of anesthesiology. Is this happening near you too?
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U have a link to this article?
Elective procedures are being stopped all over the country due to rising covid cases and stressed hospital systems.
 
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Heist said:
Chicagoland Hospital Delays Elective Surgeries Due to Lack of Anesthesia Providers Elgin hospital temporarily puts elective surgeries on hold
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forums.studentdoctor.net

Hospital Cancels Surgeries After Firing Anesthesiology Group

8/31/2021 7:42 AM Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin is putting a hold on elective surgeries for almost three weeks due to a lack of anesthesia providers. In a statement, parent company Advocate Aurora Health didn't address the reason for the shortage in anesthesia providers, but did say they...
forums.studentdoctor.net forums.studentdoctor.net


Sounds like the administration fired the anesthesia group of 30 years and is now trying to control the narrative blaming an “anesthesia shortage”
 
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www.chicagotribune.com

Shortage of anesthesiologists at Sherman tied to hospital’s decision not to renew contract with Elgin doctors, rep says

Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin is moving noncritical and elective procedures to other hospitals in its health system until mid-September because they don’t have enough anesthesia doctors,…
www.chicagotribune.com www.chicagotribune.com


Shortage of anesthesiologists at Sherman tied to hospital’s decision not to renew contract with Elgin doctors, rep says​


Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin is moving noncritical and elective procedures to other hospitals in its health system until mid-September because they don’t have enough anesthesia doctors, officials said.
“The health and safety of our patients is our top priority,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. “We will continue to provide care for urgent and emergent situations, and it is critical that patients seek care when needed. Labor and delivery services will continue without interruption.


“However, we are rescheduling less than 100 noncritical or elective procedures to other Advocate Aurora Health locations until Sept. 20 at the latest due to a shortage of anesthesia providers,” she said.
The shortage was created by Advocate’s decision to end contract negotiations with United Anesthesia Associates, a private anesthesiologist practice based in Elgin with whom it has had a contract for 30 years, spokesman Dr. Sanjay Sutaria said. The move led to 17 anesthesiologists losing their jobs, he said.

Talks had been ongoing for more than a year and a half before Advocate walked away from the table, Sutaria said. Repeated requests to resume negotiations were not answered, he said.

Advocate declined to comment further on the situation.


Anesthesiologists are licensed physicians who specialize in preparing anesthetic plans for patients and administering anesthetics during medical procedures.
Sutaria said the Advocate’s decision to sever ties with the practice was especially galling given the additional hours the private anesthesiologists worked during the COVID-19 pandemic, going beyond what was required in their contract. There times when the doctors worked 24-hour shifts because of the caseload, he said.

“We were on the frontlines putting ourselves in the face of COVID patients,” Sutaria said.
Earlier this year the practice informed Advocate that its anesthesiologists would be following the contract guidelines and not doing any additional work for one day, Sutaria said. They wanted to demonstrate the services they provide that would go unfilled if they stuck to their contract, he said.


Their new contract demands were for pay that is in line with national standards and the hiring of additional anesthesiologists to meet the requests being made by hospital surgeons, he said.

Instead of returning to the table, Advocate opted not to renew the association’s contract and gave United’s doctors 10 days to apply for jobs with TeamHealth, the new company they’d hired to provide anesthesiology services, Sutaria said.


“They decided to go with them without offering us a different proposal to compete against,” he said. “Basically, they gave us a 10-day notice to (join TeamHealth).”

Had they accepted the deal, the anesthesiologists would have been required to work more hours and take a big cut in compensation, he said.

“We wanted to retain some dignity in this whole thing. They were basically forcing us into a situation that was very unfair,” he said.

All 17 providers chose not to join the new company.

While Advocate’s shortage of anesthesiologists was of its own making, nationally there is a 9.8% shortage of doctors and a 3.8% shortage of nurse anesthesiologists in the nation, according to the RAND Corp., a research organization that works to resolve public policy problems.
There are about 35,000 anesthesiologists and 1,280 nurses in the country, and the shortage of both is expected to increase over the next 10 years, Rand says.

That shortage, however, also means his practice’s doctors will find new positions soon, Sutaria said. He has had six job offers in five days, he said.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
 
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Thank you for covering the actual story Chicago Tribune. This was hidden behind a paywall. Amazing that only the story blaming anesthesia gets picked up nationally.
 
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Apparently a bunch of our icu nurses are raging antivaxer even though they've been dealing with covid for over a year now. I guess they would rather leave and live off that self made government dole than get a jab in the arm.
 
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SnapperRocks said:
www.chicagotribune.com

Shortage of anesthesiologists at Sherman tied to hospital’s decision not to renew contract with Elgin doctors, rep says

Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin is moving noncritical and elective procedures to other hospitals in its health system until mid-September because they don’t have enough anesthesia doctors,…
www.chicagotribune.com www.chicagotribune.com


Shortage of anesthesiologists at Sherman tied to hospital’s decision not to renew contract with Elgin doctors, rep says​


Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin is moving noncritical and elective procedures to other hospitals in its health system until mid-September because they don’t have enough anesthesia doctors, officials said.
“The health and safety of our patients is our top priority,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. “We will continue to provide care for urgent and emergent situations, and it is critical that patients seek care when needed. Labor and delivery services will continue without interruption.


“However, we are rescheduling less than 100 noncritical or elective procedures to other Advocate Aurora Health locations until Sept. 20 at the latest due to a shortage of anesthesia providers,” she said.
The shortage was created by Advocate’s decision to end contract negotiations with United Anesthesia Associates, a private anesthesiologist practice based in Elgin with whom it has had a contract for 30 years, spokesman Dr. Sanjay Sutaria said. The move led to 17 anesthesiologists losing their jobs, he said.

Talks had been ongoing for more than a year and a half before Advocate walked away from the table, Sutaria said. Repeated requests to resume negotiations were not answered, he said.

Advocate declined to comment further on the situation.


Anesthesiologists are licensed physicians who specialize in preparing anesthetic plans for patients and administering anesthetics during medical procedures.
Sutaria said the Advocate’s decision to sever ties with the practice was especially galling given the additional hours the private anesthesiologists worked during the COVID-19 pandemic, going beyond what was required in their contract. There times when the doctors worked 24-hour shifts because of the caseload, he said.

“We were on the frontlines putting ourselves in the face of COVID patients,” Sutaria said.
Earlier this year the practice informed Advocate that its anesthesiologists would be following the contract guidelines and not doing any additional work for one day, Sutaria said. They wanted to demonstrate the services they provide that would go unfilled if they stuck to their contract, he said.


Their new contract demands were for pay that is in line with national standards and the hiring of additional anesthesiologists to meet the requests being made by hospital surgeons, he said.

Instead of returning to the table, Advocate opted not to renew the association’s contract and gave United’s doctors 10 days to apply for jobs with TeamHealth, the new company they’d hired to provide anesthesiology services, Sutaria said.


“They decided to go with them without offering us a different proposal to compete against,” he said. “Basically, they gave us a 10-day notice to (join TeamHealth).”

Had they accepted the deal, the anesthesiologists would have been required to work more hours and take a big cut in compensation, he said.

“We wanted to retain some dignity in this whole thing. They were basically forcing us into a situation that was very unfair,” he said.

All 17 providers chose not to join the new company.

While Advocate’s shortage of anesthesiologists was of its own making, nationally there is a 9.8% shortage of doctors and a 3.8% shortage of nurse anesthesiologists in the nation, according to the RAND Corp., a research organization that works to resolve public policy problems.
There are about 35,000 anesthesiologists and 1,280 nurses in the country, and the shortage of both is expected to increase over the next 10 years, Rand says.

That shortage, however, also means his practice’s doctors will find new positions soon, Sutaria said. He has had six job offers in five days, he said.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
Click to expand...

Someone should email the author and correct her. No such thing as a nurse anesthesiologist.
 
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I think this should be a wake up call to groups that are short docs and are asking for a stipend to raise salaries, but at the same time offering a 2 or 3 year partnership track well below what napa, etc are paying. You can't complain you don't have enough money to hire more people and at the same time offer 275 or whatever for a few years and wonder why you can't recruit people.
 
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dabears505 said:
I think this should be a wake up call to groups that are short docs and are asking for a stipend to raise salaries, but at the same time offering a 2 or 3 year partnership track well below what napa, etc are paying. You can't complain you don't have enough money to hire more people and at the same time offer 275 or whatever for a few years and wonder why you can't recruit people.
Click to expand...


Sutaria said the Advocate’s decision to sever ties with the practice was especially galling given the additional hours the private anesthesiologists worked during the COVID-19 pandemic, going beyond what was required in their contract. There times when the doctors worked 24-hour shifts because of the caseload, he said.

“We were on the frontlines putting ourselves in the face of COVID patients,” Sutaria said.
Earlier this year the practice informed Advocate that its anesthesiologists would be following the contract guidelines and not doing any additional work for one day, Sutaria said. They wanted to demonstrate the services they provide that would go unfilled if they stuck to their contract, he said.”

———————————-

I understand the sentiment but I am not sure it applies here. My group does not have a predatory buy in, however, I will say when we are deciding whether or not to add someone, it has little to do with what our competition is offering. In fact, the money actually has less to do with it than the work life balance. There are a lot of moving parts and it is hard to predict our needs. There is a tight balance between not enough work to go around and too much call. Doing your own cases and billing let’s you see exactly how much your time is worth. There are good jobs out there. It seems insane to me that people do the work they do for those partnership tracks or AMCs knowing what the billing brings in.

If anything, I think this hospitals outcome demonstrates the need for anesthesiologists and doctors in general to grow a pair and not just meet unsustainable demands outside of contracts in hopes of building goodwill. Round 1 of covid was an unforeseeable emergency. Administrators inability to meet the incoming staffing needs at this point in the pandemic is not my problem. Picking up weird tiring high risk out of specialty work covering emergency covid demands for less than you’d make for the opportunity cost of that time working as an anesthesiologist is a poor business decision. Pay me.
 
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If hospital thought subsidizing the private group was expensive, they’re going to hurt paying for locums and with less money A/R coming in from canceled cases to do so.

another reminder to have an emergency fund and vote with your feet.
 
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D P356 said:
If hospital thought subsidizing the private group was expensive, they’re going to hurt paying for locums and with less money A/R coming in from canceled cases to do so.

another reminder to have an emergency fund and vote with your feet.
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That stood out to me as well, 0/17 anesthesiologists joined team health. Granted I wouldn’t expect most to do so, but was glad they had a 100% united front.
 
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Kudos to that group. It's hard to have 17 people stick to their guns and morals. Makes me think the offer they got was really crappy.
 
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Hope admin gets fired on that one. Big mistake as it will lead to bad PR and loss of revenue.
 
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coffeebythelake said:
Well the MBAs and hospital PR have spun a story to absolve themselves of blame. Its thr anesthesias fault. **** these corporate healhcare azzholes
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Yeah. Maybe… yet most of these hospitals have a board of directors and this is exactly how a CEO gets fired. Seen it go down like this a times in my career. Whoever championed that idea and those who supported it need to go.
 
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I mean there is always a boys club, but when things like this go so sideways you have put an entire community at risk and have put OR personnel salaries on pause (surgeons, or staff, etc). Somones head needs to roll.
 
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In my experience, it is the “Board of Directors“ that usually enables these types of situations. I predict no heads will roll.
 
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'The hospital is broken': Sherman surgery vice chair calls anesthesia shortage a crisis

www-dailyherald-com.cdn.ampproject.org www-dailyherald-com.cdn.ampproject.org

"I think you were told that the operating room would be back to normal by this week or at least by October 1, but that's just not happening," Stanley said. "Now we're being told that it's probably going to take nine to 12 months before we are able to be at the same capacity that we were back in August."

200p cases a month to 200 ..
 
Airway said:
"Now we're being told that it's probably going to take nine to 12 months before we are able to be at the same capacity that we were back in August."
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o_O that sounds likes a system heading towards bankruptcy
 
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“He said Sherman normally does nearly 2,000 cases a month but is on track to do less than 200 in August, a 90% reduction in capacity.

"This capacity crisis is going to continue for a long time," he said. "The hospital is broken."

Stanley said he hoped the council would be able to influence the hospital to dissolve their contract with TeamHealth, their new provider, and go back to the anesthesiologists "that were kicked out."

Wahahahahaha. I hope all hospital CEOs take note.
 
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Guillemot said:
You can be paid some vague sum of money with unspecified benefits, job obligations, and hours? Sign me up.
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They probably used the same vagueness to get the hospital to sign up with them. Clearly they didn’t have a plan.

At least travel nurse listings say how much they’re gonna pay.
 
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Here is an interesting question. Advocate-Aurora is a big healthcare system. I presume it would be big enough to negotiate favorable rates with insurance companies. Why are they hiring AMC's when they could do it in house? I know they already employ anesthesiologists at some locations.
 
ACT practice. No Thanks.
Illinois. No Thanks
Hospital screwed previous anesthesiologists. No Thanks
Teamhealth bending you over. No Thanks
 
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IMGASMD said:
“He said Sherman normally does nearly 2,000 cases a month but is on track to do less than 200 in August, a 90% reduction in capacity.

"This capacity crisis is going to continue for a long time," he said. "The hospital is broken."

Stanley said he hoped the council would be able to influence the hospital to dissolve their contract with TeamHealth, their new provider, and go back to the anesthesiologists "that were kicked out."

Wahahahahaha. I hope all hospital CEOs take note.
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F yeah! The old group needs to take out a billboard with the administrator's face on it and a synopsis reading "profits above patients?"
 
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Airway said:

'The hospital is broken': Sherman surgery vice chair calls anesthesia shortage a crisis

www-dailyherald-com.cdn.ampproject.org www-dailyherald-com.cdn.ampproject.org

"I think you were told that the operating room would be back to normal by this week or at least by October 1, but that's just not happening," Stanley said. "Now we're being told that it's probably going to take nine to 12 months before we are able to be at the same capacity that we were back in August."

200p cases a month to 200 ..
Click to expand...

Dumb ****s

Save a dime lose a dollar
 
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Like I said earlier… this is EXACTLY how CEO’s die. Hospital is going to go into bankruptcy soon if they don’t figure something out.
 
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dabears505 said:
I got a recruiter said 225 hr for in house ob coverage.
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275-330+ all expenses, contracted day time 7-8 hrs, on call 500+ minimum 2 hr minimum for call back, 330+ after 3pm…etc…or walk.
 
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BTW the correct headline for the news should be:

"Elective surgeries cancelled because greedy hospital execs fire longstanding anesthesiologist group; replacement private-equity backed group unable to deliver on their promises"
 
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I wonder if the surgeons and gi docs were rvu based or salaried. They must be so angry if rvu based and can't do cases. What a colossal f up
 
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There is of course the obligatory letter to the editor from the President of the Illinois CRNA Assoc. Plus de rigeur comments after the article by militant CRNAs.
 
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dr doze said:
There is of course the obligatory letter to the editor from the President of the Illinois CRNA Assoc. Plus de rigeur comments after the article by militant CRNAs.
Click to expand...

Never let a good crisis go to waste I suppose. But to claim that a staffing crisis in what had previously been a fully staffed department would be fixed by independent CRNAs is a stretch even for these guys.

And based on this posting it’s not like there’s an abundance of CRNAs looking to work here either: GasWork.com - Reference #343842

And one last note: read the posting above, and then tell me you would ever want to work for team health. They’re offering ‘autonomy’ and the signing bonus is higher than the docs. This is not a company that values physicians or what we bring to the table.
 
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