Another independent physician group has been ousted from Summa Health System, whose leadership is under pressure after it replaced its longtime emergency room doctors with another group with ties to a Summa senior leader.
The three-year contract for Respiratory, Critical Care, Sleep Associates (RCSA), a member of Unity Health Network, based in Cuyahoga Falls, expired Thursday and has not been renewed, RCSA managing physician director Dr. Charles Fuenning confirmed. Fuenning said it is his understanding that 11 physicians have been replaced with nurse practitioners to work with Summa-employed physicians.
“To my knowledge, no one has brought up quality issues. Myself and many of my physicians have been listed as top docs in Akron and Cleveland magazines,” he said.
The nonrenewal of his group’s contract means his 11 physicians will no longer have privileges on critical-care floors, including as medical and surgical intensive care units at Akron City Hospital.
“It does not allow us to practice our full spectrum of respiratory medicine,” he said.
Fuenning said he has worked with many nurse practitioners and physician assistants and “love them and they are very competent.”
But he said, “a nurse practitioner is not the same as a seasoned, board-certified, critical-care physician.”
Summa spokesman Mike Bernstein confirmed Thursday afternoon that the contract with RCSA for critical care medicine staffing services will not be renewed.
“Dr. Fuenning is one of two RCSA physicians who were notified during an in-person meeting with members of Summa’s leadership team on June 29, 2016, and subsequently via certified mail, of the decision,” Bernstein said. “During the June 29 in-person meeting with Dr. Fuenning, it was confirmed that a several month transition plan would be put into place to ensure no interruption to patient care. Critical care medicine staffing services will now be provided by Summa Health Medical Group physicians.
“The Summa Health System-Akron Campus will be staffed at all times by critical care physicians and nurse practitioners. The Summa Health System-Barberton Campus also will be staffed by critical care physicians and nurse practitioners with the exception of the midnight shift. During the midnight shift, Barberton will be staffed by nurse practitioners with a critical care physician on-call via telemedicine.”
Bernstein did not answer several other questions regarding the nonrenewal of the contract, including the reason and whether this was an indication that Summa was moving toward an employee-staffed model instead of working with independently contracted physician groups.
Fuenning, who said he is the longest-serving critical-care specialist in Akron, has been practicing at Summa facilities since 1986.
“Many of my physicians I work with are graduates of that hospital residency program,” he said. “They came back to this community to be here. We liked that hospital, so it’s very disappointing.”
Fuenning said he and his colleagues would never tell a patient where to go for medical care, but they will be notifying patients that his practice is no longer able to see patients on critical-care units at City Hospital. They will continue to have privileges on noncritical care units, but if patients’ conditions decline and they are moved to an ICU, the doctors cannot see them, he said.
The doctors will instead be practicing at other hospitals, Western Reserve Hospital, University Hospital Portage Medical Center (formerly Robinson Memorial Hospital) and Mercy Medical Center in Canton.
Fuenning is also an investor in Western Reserve Hospital, which has been in an extended legal battle with Summa. Fuenning said he was not in a position to say whether the nonrenewal was personal, “but it certainly could be.”
News of RCSA’s contract not being renewed comes on the heels of the firestorm last week when it was revealed that Summa Emergency Associates (SEA) — an independent physician corporation that’s separate from Summa — was being replaced with four days’ notice to staff its five emergency rooms with a group of doctors paid by Canton-based US Acute Care Solutions (USACS) on New Year’s Day.
Fuenning, a former division chief in the pulmonary department who has served on the hospital’s board of trustees, said he and his partners have been receiving support from other doctors upset with Summa’s decision to terminate the contracts with his group and SEA.
“There’s now two episodes here,” Fuenning said. “It makes someone pause and think.”
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty