• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Health Care District May Take Over Solving ER Doctor Shortage

Posted on: Thursday, 11 May 2006, 12:07 CDT

By Phil Galewitz, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.

May 11--A task force of top Palm Beach County hospital executives and doctors that has been working to solve the shortage of emergency room specialists is now considering giving the problem to the Health Care District of Palm Beach County.

The task force, called the Emergency Department Management Group, has spent more than a year and at least $100,000 on consultants, lawyers and efforts to devise a system ensuring that patients have quick access to hand surgeons, neurosurgeons and other specialists for emergencies.

The task force now wants the health care district to consider taking over its job, in part because it can provide both money and antitrust protections that will allow competing hospitals to work together.

District officials agreed Wednesday to form a working group to study whether the district should play a bigger role. District CEO Dwight Chenette and district Trauma Director Dr. Jeff Davis have been serving on the management group.

Now, two district board members will meet with two management group members to make recommendations on giving the district a broader role.

Two district commissioners, Randee Schatz and Dr. Stanley Pierce, said the district has an obligation to make sure patients in the county can have access to specialists in an emergency.

The district runs the county trauma system, which is provided at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach and Delray Medical Center in Delray Beach.

"We have a responsibility for the health and wellness of people in Palm Beach County," Schatz said. "This is a huge issue, and we need to look into it."

While doctors are available to treat trauma cases because the district pays them, hospitals have struggled to get enough doctors to handle non-trauma emergencies in certain specialties such as orthopedics, plastic surgery, hand surgery and neurosurgery.

In the past two years, most hospitals in the county have started paying doctors to take emergency cases. The money has helped, but some specialists are still reluctant to work because they fear the added liability risk.

The management group wants to set up a regional on-call system for doctors in specialties such as hand surgery. This way patients needing that type of care would be directed to hospitals that have the specialists.

However, hand surgeons have said they fear they would be inundated with patients from the Treasure Coast.

It is unclear how much it would cost to operate the on-call system, how much the doctors would be paid and where the money would come from.

"At the end of day, it's all about who will pay for it," said district Commissioner Irv Slosberg, a state legislator.

Dr. Lloyd Zucker, a Delray Beach neurosurgeon who is part of the management group, said the district's decision shows progress is being made on the issue, albeit slowly.

"We're moving forward," said Zucker, who because of the shortage was on call every other day for more than three years until recently.

Mitch Feldman, CEO of Delray Medical Center and vice chairman of the management group, described the ER specialist shortage as a "fragile situation."

-----

To see more of The Palm Beach Post -- including its homes, jobs, cars and other classified listings -- or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.palmbeachpost.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Palm Beach Post

More News in this Category