Long Beach, Calif.-based Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center has selected a new contractor to provide trauma services at the hospital and is parting ways with its previous team of trauma surgeons — the latest in a series of departmental shake-ups over the past few years, according to an April 28 report from the Press-Telegram.
The news outlet obtained an internal memo announcing the change.
"After much consideration, Desert Trauma Surgeons has been selected to provide acute care trauma emergency call coverage services for St. Mary Medical Center," St. Mary President and CEO Carolyn Caldwell said in an April 24 memo to the hospital's medical executive committee. "We will begin the process of contracting and credentialing the providers to be associated with Desert immediately." The contract changes went into effect April 24 and the hospital is in the process of finding a new trauma medical director, according to the memo cited by the news outlet.
Over the past few years, the hospital has replaced its anesthesiology, radiology and emergency medicine providers. Physicians have criticized the changes, citing patient safety concerns. The first change came in 2019, when hospital executives decided to sever ties with long-standing anesthesiologist providers. That sparked a unanimous no-confidence vote in the hospital's CEO in May 2019. In 2020, after the hospital terminated contracts with radiology and emergency medicine groups, physicians filed a lawsuit alleging the hospital broke several patients safety laws. The lawsuit was dismissed.
In February, two physicians — including Chief of Staff Mauricio Heilbron, MD, one of the surgeons affected by the latest decision to switch trauma providers — filed another suit against Dignity Health and St. Mary executives, alleging they took retaliatory measures after the physicians had been critical about other departmental changes.
"Just as with other successful recent changes to certain hospital based contracts, this change is being made only to ensure the hospital continues to provide continuous and uninterrupted quality trauma care services to our community," Christina Zicklin, a hospital spokesperson, told the Press-Telegram. "In no manner is this new contract an effort to retaliate against any of the seven trauma surgeons who work at our hospital."
Desert Trauma Surgeons, the new contractor, is also "open to meeting with current trauma physicians," Ms. Zicklin told the Press-Telegram.