Summa Emergency Associates Weighs In

Jeffrey Wright, MD, president of Summa Emergency Associates

KK: Tell us about the background and history of your group.
JW: Our group is private and independent, owned and run by the physicians. We’ve been around for 40 years or so, and we have run the residency program at Summa Health System since 1980.

KK: How challenging was that for you to begin a training program in emergency medicine, knowing that Akron General was already in place just down the road?

JW: Both are very good programs. Both have won international awards, do well recruiting each year, and put out a very good product, well-trained residents. We have residents go all over the country every year. We have 10 residents a year; it’s a three-year program.

KK: The program has a great reputation and provides great training. What really happened, from your perspective, with this transition?

JW: Basically, our most recent contract [with Summa Health System] was a three-year contract started in 2013. At that time, there was an RFP because Summa wanted one group for six emergency departments. One has since closed, so now it’s five emergency departments. It was us and many other groups vying for that contract. We won the contract in 2013 and picked up three other emergency departments within the system.