Children's Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., hired interim neurosurgeons to help after 10 surgeons resigned last year. Now the interim surgeons are leaving, and the hospital will transfer all emergent neurosurgical cases elsewhere, according to local news station WOWT.
The medical center said the interim pediatric neurosurgeons will leave in March, and there are not enough qualified temporary neurosurgeons to fill the open positions.
Emergent neurosurgical cases will be transferred to Nebraska Medicine in Omaha until the children's hospital can hire new surgeons. Hospital officials said the change will affect 40 patients a month.
Having intermittent pediatric neurosurgical coverage instead of 24/7 coverage is not safe or sustainable, hospital officials said in an email to staff obtained by the news station.
Last year, nine neurosurgeons and a plastic surgeon resigned from Children’s Hospital shortly before two of their colleagues filed a Jan. 4 lawsuit claiming they were wrongly suspended after reporting concerns about the competency of a colleague.