By Donna Hales
Phoenix Staff Writer
November 20, 2008 10:41 pm
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A legal squabble over Muskogee Regional Medical Center requiring two of three unpaid surgeons to be on call in the emergency room is headed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
“The hospital denied I had jurisdiction and said they were going to appeal,” District Judge Mike Norman said Thursday. “The hospital said (court-ordered) mediation did not work.”
Attorney D.D. Hayes said the hospital didn’t mediate or negotiate in good faith and is not following its bylaws.
Hayes said it is not fair to expect the two surgeons — Dr. Tim Robison and Dr. Richard Reutlinger — to be on call in the ER for eight, 24-hour shifts per month, without compensation.
Hayes said the hospital receives money from the federal government to help man the emergency room and should be hiring ER surgeons.
When surgeons are summoned to the emergency room, they are usually there for long periods, Hayes said.
Attorneys for Capella Healthcare, which lease the MRMC from the city of Muskogee, said the hospital would keep surgery people on call 24-7, pending appeal, Norman said.
The hospital expects the two surgeons in the lawsuit to help provide that care, according to a statement released Thursday.
“While this issue has yet to reach a final resolution in court, we expect that, in the meantime, the two surgeons will meet their on-call obligation, as required by the medical staff bylaws, rules and regulations and policies,” according to the statement.
“Patients can be assured MRMC has 24/7 surgical coverage in the Emergency Department.”
However, Hayes said his clients did not have any such an agreement with the hospital, Norman said.
But Norman said he doesn’t know if there will be an agreement for on-call surgery services at MRMC at this time.
“If you head to the hospital and need a surgeon, you’re probably on the way to Tulsa,” Norman said.
“I told them I would like surgeons to be on call because I was the judge most apt to need surgery. They (MRMC) said they had them.”
Much of the squabble is over whether Norman can force the hospital to follow its rules and bylaws, Hayes said.
MRMC wrote it would continue to try to recruit new surgeons to supplement coverage of the emergency room and take some of the load off the other surgeons.
Reach Donna Hales at 918-684-2923 or Click Here to Send Email
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