Summa Health System insists the abrupt change in physicians staffing its five emergency rooms went seamlessly over the holiday weekend. James McIlvaine, the chairman of the Summa board of directors, cited a possible work stoppage for the sudden break with Summa Emergency Associates, long the respected source of ER physicians for the system. Obviously, Summa directors and executives must have ample room to run the organization as they deem fit.
Yet this episode has rattled many in the community. How does a relationship of such length go sour so quickly, especially when practically no one thought Summa and the physicians group would have problems renewing their agreement?
Put another way, Summa has many steeper challenges than staffing its emergency rooms.
Each side would do well to ask itself: What happened? Contract negotiations can be tricky, from measuring leverage to seeing the endgame. Summa shouldn’t be surprised that its words have been greeted with skepticism, some saying the transition in the emergency department hasn’t been so smooth, others wondering about ham-handedness in communication.
Unflattering comparisons have been made to the Scott Scarborough era at the University of Akron, raising familiar questions about the quality of leadership.
There is much to applaud about Summa, including the willingness of Dr. Thomas Malone, its president and chief executive, to make tough decisions in a most challenging time for health care. The population health strategy of Summa, started under Tom Strauss, makes sense as a way to enhance quality and curb costs.
Summa long has been an anchor institution in Akron, winning affection and respect. Now it faces questions stemming from the aloof style of Malone and heavy turnover in its executive ranks. It is logical that US Acute Care Solutions entered the picture. The Canton-based firm is one of the largest emergency medicine groups in the country. At the same time, its chief executive is married to Dr. Vivian von Gruenigen, the Summa chief medical officer and a Summa board member. Summa stresses that von Gruenigen was not part of the USACS negotiations.
On Sunday, resident physicians at Summa expressed no confidence in Thomas Malone’s leadership. James McIlvaine dismissed the letter as carrying little weight because it was unsigned. That doesn’t seem sufficient explanation. Neither does the emergency physicians suggesting their side played no role in the negotiations failing as they did.
The unanswered questions and clashing views come at a vulnerable time for the city. Other stalwarts are navigating change, or rough patches, including FirstEnergy and FirstMerit, now Huntington Bank. Concerns remain about the long-term role of Akron General in the community, now part of the Cleveland Clinic. So when Summa runs into this kind of turbulence, there is further uneasiness, and a desire for clarity about what went wrong.