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Hospital ER Doctors ask for raise |
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Monday, 08 February 2010 |
Emergency room doctor services at Memorial Hospital of Texas County are performed by doctors of Guymon Emergency, PLLC, a group contracted by the hospital to man the emergency room 24 hours a day.
By LEE COLEMAN
Assistant Editor
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Emergency room doctor services at Memorial Hospital of Texas County are performed by doctors of Guymon Emergency, PLLC, a group contracted by the hospital to man the emergency room 24 hours a day.
During the hospital Board of Control meeting last Tuesday, the Board considered a request by the doctor's group for an increase in pay.
"The current ER group sent an addendum to the Board to increase their contract rate by $160,000," said MHTC CEO Jim Grocholski. "The Board has chosen to look at other services as well. They [Board] are not going to take action to approve that request.
"They are going to have us get some competitive bids."
Grocholski said he plans to bring the bids back to the Board in the next 30 days or so.
"I will send the current ER group notification this week that we have the intent to re-negotiate the contract but that we'll solicit additional bids," he said last Wednesday. "They may still be the cheapest group out there so we'll just have to get a comparison."
Grocholski said manning the ER with active staff MHTC doctors is not a viable option at this time.
"Unfortunately, we only have so few physicians on our active staff that our primary care doctors can't do that," he explained. "You can but it is very, very difficult for these guys to maintain a full time practice and try to cover that emergency room.
"It is a discussion we've had with the Board and the commissioners [county] as to a service we are providing that is very costly. We're looking at the cost of ER physicians being at least $1.2 million a year.
"It is a lot of money and in the ER, you don't get all great payers," Grocholski added. "We are running about 38 percent self-pay so it's difficult to maintain any sort of positive bottom line."
Grocholski suggested the timeline to resolve the issue is 30-60 days maximum.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 11 February 2010 )
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