Roy Exum: It’s All Smoke & Mirrors

  • Wednesday, February 14, 2018
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

Around 5:30 yesterday afternoon Erlanger Hospital's CEO was showing me the world-class Heart & Lung Institute’s fabulous operating rooms on the hospital’s fourth floor and, as we walked, I asked why on earth there has suddenly developed a rhubarb with the UT College of Medicine. “It’s about the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen,” I candidly told my friend, “and it makes absolutely no sense from any point on the compass.”

Seriously. This afternoon members of the Erlanger Board of Trustees are meeting with members of the UT Board of Trustees over something that ain’t broke. In what is truly a wonderful arrangement between the two entities, why has Kevin Spiegel been authorized by the Erlanger leaders to cancel the contract on no more than a whim?

Spiegel’s gift, as has been repeatedly seen over the past five years, is building, not tearing down. This has no rhyme nor reason and get this straight - If such a travesty was allowed to occur, it would cripple community medicine at our Level 1 public hospital. Of all the people in our northern hemisphere, my personal experience is that Kevin Spiegel would be the last to allow that.

Try as I may, I told Kevin, I can uncover no valid reason to cease the highly-acclaimed postgraduate intern and residency program. I’ve talked to a number of leaders, searched for ‘dirt’ to dig. Where is the vendetta, the pay-back, the want for failure? There is no scandal I can find nor dishonor anywhere. What’s more, I am assured the agreement is crystal clear because it was Spiegel and the UT Medical Chancellor who actually co-authored the latest version just three years ago.

So here Kevin and I are talking as we watch an Erlanger cardiac team saving some guy’s life through the O.R. window and he fesses up. “Nothing’s going to happen … we just need to get UT’s attention. There’s a discrepancy that should have been taken care of a long time ago and this is just to clear the air.”

Are you kidding me? This is smoke-and-mirrors in some carny fashion? I’ve been tied in a knot over this threat for a whole week. So late yesterday with due exasperation, I wondered with a sigh if it couldn’t it have been done a bit more “surgically” rather than gain enough momentum for the hospital’s medical staff to draft the rough of a “no-confidence” letter to be presented to the hospital board.

Face it – here are the two of us standing in the middle of a gleaming $20 million surgical center that will save the lives of thousands in our region. It will be dedicated next week. So why wade through senseless drama and due alarm for the UT program when nothing is wrong??

In the last year Erlanger has gone from 200 heart cases per year to 500. Erlanger had earnings of roughly $700 million last year – this year that will jump to $1.2 billion. This is in just one year! And we get in a great big twist over a discrepancy in the UT business model that it turns out Kevin and me alone – a genius and a dummy – could have corrected in 10 minutes at a cafeteria table.

Many of my close friends who are doctors at Erlanger are mad because Spiegel will no longer allow Erlanger residents to attend at Memorial. That makes me mad. But then I find out Erlanger pays those residents who then work for free at Memorial. Spiegel is totally accountable for those residents. Memorial has never had a dollar in the game. Suddenly I am not mad at all.

“It is one of those things that has gone on for a long time and needs to be addressed. There are so many new rules and laws that we have to be diligent. I’m not against Memorial or Parkridge,” he told me, “but my focus has to be here. Last year we hired 100 new doctors. Think of that! In the last year we’ve gone from 5,000 to 7,000 employees. We are not mad at anybody.”

What about the great doctors that it is alleged Erlanger has forced to leave? “We have had some fine physicians who have made the choice to leave. I’ve been in the hospital business long enough to give you a long list of very valid reasosn doctors choose to work elsewhere but I’m not so crazy I would ever force a quality doctor to leave.”

Then why oh why am I told some of the best and brightest are ready to sign a “no confidence” letter? Spiegel explained that when the new Dean of the UT Medical College - Bruce Shack - was approached by a group of physicians who are faculty members at the college, UT Chancellor of Health Services Steve Schwab quickly replied with a request for a delay until he could meet face-to-face with members of the hospital and UT trustees. “That is why we are meeting tomorrow,” said the dynamic Erlanger leader. “We believe this will help that situation.”

“As a matter of fact, I know the outcome of the meeting will mean a lot to all of us. But it is an issue that must be addressed.”

So here I am, looking over a past week of sleuthing, and find no smoke, no gunpowder, no argument and no reason for alarm. My itch doesn’t even need a scratch. But rather than feel like a fool, like I’ve been flummoxed, I am relieved. My precious Erlanger and its people are going to be okay.

royexum@aol.com

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