Patients visiting the emergency department at Newman Regional Health will see physicians employed locally rather than by an out-of-town service.
The change, hospital officials said this morning in a news release, came after Emergency Services of Kansas told the Emporia hospital’s administration in July that it did not want to renew the staffing contract because of financial challenges. ESK has contracted to staff Newman’s emergency department since Jan. 1, 2008.
After looking at several options — including contracting with another staffing service, Newman’s administration and medical staff decided the best course was to offer employment to the physicians staffing the department for ESK. In 2008, there were 10,608 visits to the emergency department.
“Our responsibility is to continue providing high quality emergency services to the community,” said Bob Driewer, Newman CEO. “Closing the emergency department for even a short amount of time was not an option. At the same time, we also had to find a cost-effective solution.”
The current physicians working in the department are Drs. James Seberger, Stephen Resnick, Val Brown and David Bohlender. In addition, three physicians are helping cover the emergency department as independent contractors — Drs. Marnie Van Becelaere, Vanessa Cook and Mary Vernon. Dr. Ted Cook is serving as the interim medical director until Newman secures a full-time dedicated medical director for physician services and support in the emergency department.
“We are still trying to hire more emergency department physicians,” Driewer said. “We’d like to employ five full-time physicians for this unit, as well as a few part-time physicians.”
spectator (anonymous) says...
I recognize the names, including that of the Greg House wannabe, as the same pompous "caregivers" as have been here all too long. So what's the improvement ? "... continue providing high quality emergency services..." Bob ? Been a long time since I've experienced or heard about that in newman's outpatient dept. When did you start ? Don't tinkle on my leg and claim it's raining.
August 19, 2009 at 9:07 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )