CHI St. Alexius Health Bismarck (N.D.) signed a contract with an outside agency to staff its emergency department after physician contract negotiations disintegrated, according to The Bismarck Tribune.
The hospital, a part of Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives, contracted with staffing agency HealthSource to supply ER physicians starting July 1.
"We reached this decision after weeks of efforts at compromise and to come to terms on a new contract with our current emergency department of approximately nine physicians. Regrettably, we were not able to reach a new agreement with our ED physicians," the hospital said in a statement to The Bismarck Tribune.
CHI St. Alexius' announcement arrives roughly a week after the hospital decided June 14 not to reinstate the hospital's medical executive, peer review and credentials committees. Representing the clinicians at CHI St. Alexius, 13 of 14 members of the medical executive committee sent a letter May 1 to John Giese, chairman of the hospital's board, accusing CHI divisional leaders of poor leadership and citing examples of what they believed to be low employee morale and reduced quality of care.
The 13 MEC leaders resigned from the executive committee after their demands had not been met by a May 15 deadline.
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