Detroit Medical Center is making contingency plans with other physician groups if it cannot reach an agreement with Troy, Mich.-based Wayne State University Physician Group in its contract negotiations, according to the Detroit Free Press.
"We are in earnest planning, just in case," Roger Wiseman, senior vice president at the DMC, said Thursday, according to the report. "We've talked to many physicians and physician groups, and so those contingency plans are under way. But I want to emphasize we very much want this contract to be completed with (Wayne State) physicians."
In conflict is a demand by WSU physicians to include a nonsolicitation agreement in the contract. The agreement would prohibit both organizations from seeking services of one another's employees for a period of time, which the physician group says protects its physicians from poaching by DMC.
DMC negotiators walked out of a Tuesday meeting with WSU Physician Group representatives after the DMC officials were told the representatives were not authorized to discuss the DMC's concerns about the rule, the hospital system told the Detroit Free Press.
A spokesperson for WSU School of Medicine declined to divulge details of the negotiations to the Detroit Free Press.