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W.Va. doctors strike over insurance costs
WHEELING, West Virginia (CNN) -- At least 39 surgeons walked off the job at four hospitals in West Virginia on Wednesday to protest rising medical malpractice insurance costs, officials said. The hospitals are all in Wheeling, in the northern part of the state sandwiched between Ohio and Pennsylvania. They now must transfer emergency surgeries elsewhere and cancel planned procedures until the doctors end the strike, which they have scheduled to do at the end of the month, officials said. "This is an emergency situation," said Dr. Donald Hofreuter, chief executive of Wheeling Hospital, which as of midday Wednesday had transferred one surgery patient to a hospital in Morgantown, approximately 80 miles away. Eighteen surgeons from Wheeling Hospital walked out Wednesday, including all those in general, orthopedic, and cardiac surgery, Hofreuter said. Ohio Valley Medical Center is missing 13 surgeons from a variety of areas, including general surgery and cardiovascular, spokesman Howard Gamble said. Its emergency room will remain open throughout the strike, but patients needing additional care will be transported to a hospital across the border in Ohio, he said.
As of Wednesday morning, the hospital has not had to transfer anyone, Gamble said. Eight surgeons from various departments walked out at Reynolds Memorial Hospital, a nursing supervisor there said, but so far has not had to transfer any patients as a result of the action. Weirton Medical Center is also affected by the walkout, but officials there declined comment Wednesday. The surgeons all sent requests for 30-day leaves of absence to their hospitals, with an option to extend for another 30 days. The hospitals -- which have had to face similar rising costs for their own medical malpractice insurance -- say they expect the surgeons to return by the end of January, if not before, as the governor and state legislature work to pass new legislation to address what has now become a crisis. Familiar issue to PennsylvaniaPennsylvania averted a similar situation Tuesday when Gov.-elect Ed Rendell proposed a $220 million bailout to stop 42 doctors from striking there. The doctors, who ranged from neurosurgeons to orthopedists to ob-gyns, were also protesting the high cost of medical malpractice insurance. (Full story) Tony Gregory, a spokesman for the West Virginia Hospital Association, a non-profit statewide group, said the tide is slowly turning in his state.
"The legislation is being presented to the legislature and the governor, and there is a willingness to move on it," he said. Hospital representatives said the biggest cost of the surgeons' absence will be in the area of staffing, as nurses -- particularly those in the surgical departments -- will have to be reduced. Financial costs are not even being considered, they said. West Virginia has been one of the most affected states in the issue of rising malpractice insurance costs. "There's virtually no insurance market in West Virginia," Gregory said. "There are 60 commercial insurance carriers licensed to offer malpractice insurance policies. However, few choose to do so." That leaves surgeons dependent on the state plan for malpractice insurance, the costs of which are extreme, officials said. "That is as expensive or more expensive than what they were paying in the commercial market," said Hofreuter. Hospitals appear to sympathize with the striking surgeons, even as they are left with major gaps in their staff. Ohio Valley Medical Center currently pays more than $10,000 a day for the state's malpractice insurance for the hospital, a cost that will only increase if the legislature does not pass relief, Gamble said. "We understand the surgeons' situation and urge Ohio Valley residents to call upon state legislative leaders and Gov. [Bob] Wise to address this problem before the situation leads to loss of surgical services," he said. Gregory said the hospital association does not support the walkout, but does understand the reasons behind it. "It clearly represents their frustration in obtaining available and affordable malpractice insurance," he said. In the legislative session beginning January 8, lawmakers are due to consider a bill very similar to the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act passed in California in 1975. MICRA limited damages in claims against medical providers for malpractice, restricted attorney contingency fees, and established a statute of limitations for claims of medical negligence. In the meantime, state officials are floating other options. The director of the state insurance agency proposed, for instance, that Ohio Valley Medical Center be approved as a Level 2 trauma center so surgeons could be covered at a reduced insurance rate, Gamble said. While the proposal is appealing to the hospital, Gamble said it does not do enough to solve the existing problem of escalating insurance costs. It also would not cover those physicians who do not provide trauma services, he said. For now, officials are hopeful their surgeons will return soon. "We're taking each day as it comes," said Hofreuter. "We're hopeful that things may turn around in 2003," Gregory said.
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We understand the surgeons' situation and urge Ohio Valley residents to call upon state legislative leaders and Gov. [Bob] Wise to address this problem before the situation leads to loss of surgical services.
