Responding to the possible sale or lease of OCH Regional Medical Center, leading doctors at the hospital say they want to see it stay county-owned.
Last spring, the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors held talks with the OCH board of trustees about starting an assessment process, the first step required by state law in the possible sale, lease or affiliation of the hospital. In June, the board hired a consultant, Fredrick Woodrell, and earlier this week hired a consulting firm to complete the assessment from a pool of final applicants.
OCH's Chief of Staff Todd Smith, Vice Chief of Staff Harry Holiday and Chief of Surgery Will Carter all agreed the climate of uncertainty created by the assessment talks could harm the hospital's physician recruitment and threaten job retention of current staff.
"I am currently trying to recruit an anesthesiologist, and [a recruit] I've been in touch with has said the assessment process and possible sale plays into considerations [he may] have before signing a contract," Carter said. "[Staff] have questioned whether the terms of contracts, salaries and vacation times would change, all of these things can't be definitively answered right now."
Carter said he recently lost a nurse anesthetist who worked at OCH for 12 years to a position in Jackson, and noted the potential hospital sale or lease was a "high contributing factor" to the staff member leaving.
"Physicians are tech-savvy," Smith said. "Before they decide to relocate anywhere they are going to do an online search of the area. If the possible sale of the hospital keeps reoccurring, that could send a negative message."
Another asset of being a county-owned facility is the protection it provides physician staff, Holiday said. As public employees, Doctors at OCH have sovereign immunity against malpractice lawsuits.
"Open staff is a very important part of what we do here," Holiday said. "A lot of people don't realize how important it is to be an open, publicly-owned facility for those who want to practice here."
OCH is a 96-bed facility, with 62 physicians on staff. Although OCH is classified as a rural hospital, the facility performs a greater volume of surgeries and endoscopy procedures than other rural facilities. The unique mix of Starkville's thriving economic base, coupled with multiple insurance providers and a strong operating room makes OCH an atypical rural facility, Smith said.
For more, see the Aug. 11 edition.