Doctors with a dozen of Asheville’s highest profile practices say they have “grave concerns about the current direction and leadership” of Mission Hospitals. The concerns were outlined in a letter to the Board of Directors of Mission Hospitals.
The letter was signed by physicians groups that include Asheville Cardiovascular Surgery, Asheville Pulmonary and Critical Care, Blue Ridge Bone and Joint, Asheville Radiology Associates and Cancer Care of WNC.
The doctors list several concerns with Mission Hospitals, including:
-failure of Mission leadership to secure HRMC/Westcare affiliation
-the lack of progress on the Cancer Center
-a poorly constructed Call Center concept
-failure of Medical Office Building initiative
-the formation (without physician input or discussion of possible partnerships) of Mission Medical Associates for securing hospital employment of physicians
-the administration’s treatment of Michael C. Buechler, MD, which led to his resignation from Mission’s trauma service
The letter goes on to state that concerns about Mission Hospital and its leadership were also evident in a recent Buncombe County Medical Society survey.
“We believe these are examples contributing to a significant deterioration in the relations between the Board, current administration and members of the Medical Staff,” the letter states. “We feel that members of the Medical Staff and the physician community at large are not being appropriately included in key decision-making. We currently do not have a relationship with the Board nor with the administration that facilitates our effective participation. We are concerned that Mission’s long-term regional viability is threatened.”
Click here to read the letter from doctors to the Board of Directors of Mission Hospitals.
I’ll have more as I get it.
10 Comments
For the last 2 years Dr. Buechler and Jim Miller tried to get Aston and Damore to approve another Trauma surgeon. The number of patients being seen in the Trauma unit indicated that a 6th traum surgeon was desperately needed; possibly even a seventh. Dr. Mike was told by Aston "we (Damore and Ford) have decided to hold on hiring a 6th Trauma surgeon BUT if your group wants to take a cut in pay, perhaps we can reconsider and hire a 6th. Aston then told Dr. Mike that he and his partners were lucky to be employed.
Is this appropriate treatment for ANY physician or employee,much less one with the exemplary record that Dr. Mike has? Maybe Aston, Damore, and Ford should have offered to take a cut in pay so that we could get another much needed trauma surgeon?
Once Dr. Mike turned in his resignation, and the physicians made their concern public, all of the sudden Damore, Aston and Ford scrambled to hire not one ladies and gentlemen, not two but three more trauma surgeons. As one physician said it is too little too late. The physicians and clinicians are the reason Mission Hospital exits – they are the ones providing the care for the patient (the MAIN reason we are here)…..The Board made a horrible mistake in hiring Joe Damore and word is (from a Board member) that due diligience (references) were not checked on Damore. Seeing the drastic debilitating changes that have occured at MIssion, I can believe that. Cold calls were made by a few concerned physicians and employees to Sparrow Hospital and none of the reports coming back about Damore were good.
Question: David Spillers had the support of the physicians, staff, signed letters by EVERY CEO (including Haywood) and community leaders – why did he not get the CEO position? Why can’t the Board admit they made a mistake and get rid of the existing senior leadership? The question is who would come into Mission with so much needing to be fixed? I would not trust the Board to make that selection again. Perhaps the physicians should determine who they would trust to fix the problems caused by the Toxic Team.
I think it is important for the public to realize that the relationship between the administration and the doctors @ Mission is ultimately tied to economic outcomes. Doctors at Mission who pull call are expected to treat and carry the liability for all who come to the hospital whether the patient is able to pay or not. And, those doctors who work with/for Mission provide a fantastic service to the community by pulling call at Mission’s ER. Mission’s ER is glutted with uninsured patients, and those physicians who treat those uninsured are not paid, carry incredible liability and often cannot meet their own practice overhead. Numbers of new doctors leave the community because they are not able to afford to practice in this region. Project Access- with its national recognition and link to Mission- has become a magnet for people to move here and receive free medical care, and in turn, impacted the medical community’s desire and financial ability to handle the influx. Someone has to pay for the uninsured, and apparently the hospital and those physicians it depends upon to provide quality healthcare to all who enter Mission’s doors disagree over where the fiscal line should be drawn. Mission’s actions will ultimately have a deleterious effect on the quality of medical care that is administered to the community… both the insured and uninsured…
Yes, it is true. Ashvegas.com has been censored by the Mission On Demand computer system. Ah, but for word of mouth . . . you can visit any department on either campus and easily overhear the despair and disgust of Mission employees re: Joe Damore, kathleen Guyette and all of Joe’s new VP’s. It’s sickening. The samples from Moorehead were kind in comparison to the rest of the 2500 who commented on the staff satisfaction survey. Emloyees received no raise this year because of the national economic woes. Joe’s salary which correctly is >$800,000 not counting perks and benefits, has taken no cut due to economic problems within the county, state, and country. So the Board is trying to downplay this, as in, this goes with the territory, etc. Stop it already. Enough. The CEO’s of major banks along with GM, etc, fell. It’s time for Joe Damore to bow out and take his people with him.
I wanted to explain to Evelyn about Dr. Mike Buechlers resignation. He has had his job threatened so many times in the last year that he finally decided to stop the stress of waiting for them to fire him for standing up to them. He cares deeply about patient care and NOT their profit (they are supposed to be a non-profit) They (Damore) did not appreciate him speaking up in meetings about Mission losing their Trauma Center designation (the program that he built) so they consistently threatened to fire him. It was a very hostile work environment. He did not want to leave. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I just saw the chairman of the board on WLOS STILL DEFENDING DAMORE!! I cannot believe it. He says that the blaming of Damore is unfair. I think that he is getting into the hospital pharmacy…. or he is dreaming. He cannot make this better without removing the problems and he is still defending them. I pray this works out but I have no confidence in them (the board) at all after hearing this interview.
Forgot to mention: I am told that your site has been spam-blocked or some-how censored by the Mission computer system. If so, so much for transparency and free speech.
You have done a great job investigating this story. I have no idea how you got a copy of this letter, but its impact is huge – the signees include many of the most respected and influential physicians in the community (not to mention the biggest moneymakers for the hospital system). Asheville medicine is acknowledged far and wide for its excellence. This is largely due to the quality and efforts of the medical staff (easy to attract top docs to this area!), along with the benign cooperation of previous administrators, resulting in a patient-oriented, efficient, kind, and friendly medical environment. The new sheriff (medical administration) in town takes a purely business (not patient!)-oriented approach, finding reasons to let valued, capable, and even beloved hospital empoyees go (they are higher paid due to seniority), and threatening long term excellent but recalcitrant physicians with replacement by warm bodies from foreign lands. It will be interesting to see how the hospital board handles this (and where they seek their own medical care in the future).
For those who have not yet read the posting just entered on 8/17 "More on Mission’s Integration of Doctors", I suggest you do so to understand how long this has been going on. Please then scroll back to the top of that article and read all 65 entries that were posted in response to the November article. It is done by clicking on the word "here" in the line "The thread is here."
After having done so, the obvious (at least to me) questions are (1) Why wasn’t action taken by the Board to investigate the basis of claims now proven to be true? (2) Where was the AC-T, and why have they ignored this story? Is it because of pressure from Missions or one of the very prominent board members who knew about JD’s history? (3) Where is the l;eadership in Asheville that, having read the insinuations, did not ask for an investigation? (4) Why are Damore/Aston still allowed in the building?
Time for board action. The Board blew it in November. How long are you going to sit on it this time?
Great job by the site provider of tying this all together!
Maybe the Board and/or Upper Management should be "REALIGNED"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Since they (Joe Damore’s so called TEAM) want to REALIGN every department in the hospital!
Evelyn, I hope these posts begin to address your concern about a lack of substance and detail regarding this issue.
Perhaps someone could explain:
"the administration’s treatment of Michael C. Buechler, MD, which led to his resignation from Mission’s trauma service