Columbia, S.C.-based Prisma Health said physicians claiming patient safety issues at the system's Baptist Hospital are motivated by money more than patient care, according to The State.
The health system made the allegations in response to an August court filing by South Carolina OB-GYN Associates that cited "abysmal" care and "astonishing lapses in patient care, cleanliness, and unsafe" conditions at Baptist Hospital in Columbia, S.C.
The legal filing came after Prisma sued the medical group in July for breaking a 10-year lease at the hospital and moving to a rival hospital, Lexington Medical Center in Columbia.
"(T)he doctors not only benefited from the sale of their practice to Lexington Medical Center, but their current status as employees of Lexington Medical Center provides the doctors financial stability, less risk and few, if any, administrative tasks that accompany business ownership," Prisma claimed in a recent court filing, according to the report.
Prisma alleges the nine physicians in the medical group were motivated by "personal financial gain" to split with its hospital.
"The SC OB-GYN doctors chose to relocate their practice form the preeminent labor and delivery hospital in the Midlands to the campus of a lower-ranked competitor hospital for one simple reason — MONEY," states the court filing, according to the report.
The hospital further claims that it was not informed of several of the complaints cited in the physicians' complaint, and that some of the complaints were exaggerated.
Read the full article from The State here.
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