An Akron councilwoman wants to help cure the problems in Summa Akron City Hospital’s Emergency Department.
Tara Mosley-Samples, whose ward includes City Hospital, has spoken with more than 40 nurses, employees, residents and patients about their concerns since the hospital system abruptly switched emergency medicine doctors on New Year’s Day. She’s also talked with Summa officials.
“This is not about trying to give Summa a black eye. This is about fixing this,” she said. “At the end of the day, my objective is to make sure Summa is stable and no one loses their jobs.”
Mosley-Samples said she is concerned the stories coming out of City’s Emergency Department could make the community afraid to go there.
“Don’t allow pride and ego to get in the way of doing the things that need to be done to restore services, make the community feel comfortable and keep the doors open,” she said.
Mosley-Samples said she continues to get complaints from City ER patients who say they waited two or three hours before going back to a room and then still were waiting for care three hours later. Summa officials, however, have repeatedly said wait times are down.
She has met Dr. Jeff Wright, the head of the former emergency medicine group, Summa Emergency Associates (SEA). She’s waiting to hear back from Summa on a proposed meeting among SEA, USACS and Summa’s new interim CEO, Dr. Cliff Deveny, who starts on Monday.
“They need to clear the air, even if they never do business together again,” she said.
The councilwoman believes bringing SEA back is the right thing to do, whether that means fully staffing City ER or only overseeing the residency program.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education recently withdrew Summa’s rights to train emergency medicine residents as of July 1 and put the entire health system’s residency program on probation. Summa and USACS are appealing the decision.
Wright said he offered to have SEA go back to staffing only the City Emergency Department and overseeing the residency program to help Summa regain its lost accreditation.
Dr. Dave Custodio, interim chair of the City Emergency Department and the hospital’s chief medical officer, said the Summa board has been very clear that the USACS contract stands.
Wright said the national accreditation group withdrew accreditation, in part, because the surveyors found USACS doctors lacked the experience needed to train the residents.
As for concerns being raised by City ER nurses about patient care, Wright said he did not ask any of the staff to “risk their jobs” by coming forward.
“These are good people that are dedicated to emergency medicine,” he said. “I think they’ve been easily dismissed to say they’re lying when what pure benefit do they have to lie? Would you put your job in jeopardy to make up a lie that’s not going to benefit you?”
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