Physicians at AAMK are alleging that their business dropped severely after the hospital switched over to a competing anesthesia provider. AAMK was the hospital’s sole anesthesia provider and claims relations between the hospital and the group changed in Feb. 2001, when Joel Seligman became NWH’s president. Mr. Seligman brought in a new chief of anesthesiology, who was a member of a competing group, according to the report.
Anesthesiologists say they often were left waiting in the lounge without procedures to do and saw their annual incomes drop to a third of the $725,000 they had been making, according to the report. AAMK is seeking $20 million in damages.
Hospital officials said the group still made $14.7 million in profits, and the decision to switch providers came as a result of complaints made against the group in the late 1990s, including that the group would not participate in managed care contracts and did not have a pediatric anesthesiologist, according to the report. NWH also said it agreed to keep AAMK on as provider if they would agree to performance standards, which the hospital says the group dragged its feet in developing.
AAMK said the hospital would not permit them from rehiring a children’s anesthesiologist and conspired to push them out as provider, according to the report.
Read the Journal News’ report on the North Westchester Hospital anesthesia trial.
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