Promises Made

Affected hospitals, now in need of a way to staff their EDs, have been making arrangements with other staffing entities to replace NES Health. Physicians contacted for this article said their hospitals have not been very supportive of the critical resource that their ED clinical staff represents.

An emergency physician who practices in hospitals in Pennsylvania, who asked not to be named for this article out of concern about how it might affect his relationship with his employers, said he didn’t feel comfortable just walking away from scheduled shifts during the turmoil over NES Health’s shutdown.

“Maybe I would have been better off, but like a lot of people, we’re basically trying to decide what is our moral, ethical responsibility to keep working at this hospital when we know we’re probably never going to get paid for all the work we’ve done,” he said.

He and his fellow clinicians convened quickly after the troubles at NES Health were revealed, scrambling to find a lawyer who could answer, for example, “if we are allowed to walk out on a shift, and under what scenario?” The doctors are back at work now, employed by a Florida-based management firm. “But all of us have lost at least two months of pay. The hospital is not saying: ‘We’re going to make you whole,’” he said.

“We definitely, as a group, plan to file a lawsuit,” he said. But most of the physicians he knows are planning to leave, cut hours, or otherwise hedge their bets regarding where they work. Experts encourage ACEP members to have working relationships with more than one hospital or employer, which would give them more flexibility and options in a crisis such as this.

Another emergency physician who asked not to be named, practicing at PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center in a remote part of Southeast Alaska, described the experience of getting a last paycheck from NES Health on September 26, for work performed in August, and then finding out that his October check would not be forthcoming.

“Very quickly, our hospital rallied us together for a meeting, reassuring us that ‘We’ll make you whole. Your back pay and malpractice will be taken care of. Don’t worry, just keep showing up. We deeply value the care you provide to our community,’” the doctor recalled.

A temporary relief contract agreement for ED staff to become hospital employees was offered by the hospital. Once that contract was signed, the idea of restoring lost back pay was dismissed as a “compliance issue,” he said.