August 10, 2010

Racine doctor: New All Saints' leadership is a 'huge improvement'

Racine's hospital was in a state of revolt earlier this year, but appears calmer now.

A group of 50 doctors threatened to leave All Saints Healthcare over general dissatisfaction with the hospital's management and forced a series of meetings with high-level officials to air their grievances. The revolt had an impact. Dr. Loren Meyer was reassigned as head of the Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group's "South Region" and resigned in July from Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare.

Meyer was replaced by the well-liked Ken Buser, who had run All Saints before being promoted when Wheaton bought All Saints.

Here's an update from an All Saints doctor with knowledge of the ongoing discussions:
The new physician leadership structure is a huge improvement and I think the docs on the whole are optimistic that they will have more input and control over big things like electronic medical records, patient billing and collection, staffing etc. Physician compensation is still an issue for some of them depending on speciality and discussions are ongoing. The new management council, executive team, site leaders (a complicated flow chart for sure!) etc should be fully operational in August and by the end of the year the docs will know if the decision to stay and demand a reorganization was worth it. Obviously the rest of the WFMG docs up in the Milwaukee markets saw what happened down here and insisted that similar changes be implemented up there. Hence the elimination of Loren Meyer's position. He will not be missed.
Orthopedic docs were not part of the discussions and planning over the last several months and it is still rumored that the group is leaving WFMG. Unclear as to what their major issues are, although I suspect compensation is one. Administration is pretty tight lipped on this topic.
So things aren't entirely settled, but they've calmed from earlier this year.


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