I think that unless things change, I will be forced to stop taking care of my patients in the hospital by year’s end. Unfortunately, the hospital’s administration is making it impossible for me to do otherwise.
It used to be that I, as a solo practitioner, could call up any other primary care doctor and have them cover my hospital patients for me if I was going to be out of town. I would do likewise for them.
Now, I am the only primary care doctor in town who is not a hospital employee that cares for hospitalized patients. One would think that there would be no problem with getting coverage for the 2 weeks a year that I typically am out of town.
One would be wrong. Until recently, I would have a hospitalist (a former local internist) willingly cover for me. That doctor (who is now employed by St. Vincent’s) has since been forbidden from helping me.
I still have a group of three internists that provides coverage for me, but that will end soon. It will end because one of them is retiring, and the other two (who are employed by the hospital) are also being forced to abandon taking care of their own hospitalized patients.
To continue to provide care to my hospitalized patients beyond this year, I will have to never take a day off. The administration has made it clear that they are unwilling to make any accommodation to allow hospitalized Henry County citizens be cared for by their own doctor.
The hospital administration believes you won’t care that you no longer can choose which doctor takes care of you when you are hospitalized. They are probably right. But if you think they are wrong, call the CEO, Paul Janssen, at 521-1515 and let him know that your tax dollars support the hospital and pay his salary. You deserve a choice.
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