More than 250 physicians from Summa Health System demanded that its president and CEO, Thomas Malone, M.D., and other leaders resign after a controversial decision to change emergency room staff.
The Akron, Ohio-based health system brought in a new physician group, US Acute Care Solutions, to staff the ER on New Year’s Day after the contract with Summa Emergency Associates expired. Summa Health gave less than a week’s notice of the change.
Physicians voted to reinstate Summa Emergency Associates and voted “no confidence” in Dr. Malone and the rest of the system’s leadership.
However, not all physicians agreed with the vote, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. Some physicians supported Dr. Malone and said that physicians against the staffing change weren’t acting in the best interests of patients.
Amidst the controversy, a matter of a potential conflict of interest came up. The CEO of US Acute Care Solutions, Dominic Bagnoli, M.D., is married to Vivian von Gruenigen, M.D., Summa Health’s chief medical officer.
But the system said Dr. von Gruenigen was not involved in the decision to bring in USACS.
To read the Beacon-Journal story, please hit this link.