{"id":43989,"date":"2021-11-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/retired-mercy-physicians-call-out-centura-health-for-high-staff-turnover-at-hospital\/"},"modified":"2021-11-01T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T11:00:00","slug":"retired-mercy-physicians-call-out-centura-health-for-high-staff-turnover-at-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/retired-mercy-physicians-call-out-centura-health-for-high-staff-turnover-at-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired Mercy physicians call out Centura Health for high staff turnover at hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"More
More than two dozen community leaders, physicians and others signed onto a \u201cpetition to improve health care\u201d at Mercy Regional Medical Center, saying rampant staff turnover has affected regional health care in Southwest Colorado. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In January 2020, a group of retired medical providers were becoming increasingly alarmed about access to health care at Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango.<\/p>\n

They were hearing from neighbors who lost their primary care physicians. On trips to Walmart and City Market, they\u2019d run into former patients who couldn\u2019t find an available doctor or whose providers kept changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were using words like \u2018primary care crisis.\u2019 They couldn\u2019t find doctors,\u201d said Bill Willson, former consultant and director of managed care and strategy at Mercy from 1998 to 2013.<\/p>\n

Mercy has already launched some programs to address its staffing issues, but the provider group says some solutions need to come from the top: Centura Health, itself.<\/p>\n

For nearly two years, hospitals around the country have been buffeted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the barbed politicization of health care and the so-called \u201cGreat Resignation.\u201d As a result, hospital leadership teams, like at Mercy, have been racing to support staff members and combat increasingly high turnover rates.<\/p>\n

But the issues at Mercy, the providers said, have been around longer than the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly believe that the decline in the number of providers and adequacy of providers and specialists dates back about five years when there were, I think, conscious financial decisions made by Centura Health, to cut back on services,\u201d said Joe Murphy, a primary care doctor who retired in 2019 after spending about 13 years working at Mercy over the last three decades.<\/p>\n

\"Kathryn
Kathryn Mimmack, left, clinical supervisor, works with Stacy Clements, medical assistant, as Makenna Kingery, medical assistant, works on the computer Thursday in the cardiology department at Mercy Regional Medical Center. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Last week, the provider group went public with its concerns with a \u201cpetition to improve health care<\/a>\u201d published in the Opinion section of The Durango Herald<\/em>. The petition was signed by 12 people, including community leaders former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, state Rep. Barbara McLachlan and City Councilor Melissa Youssef, in addition to 17 \u201cconcerned physicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter had been in the works since January 2020 and was delayed after the COVID-19 pandemic, Murphy said.<\/p>\n

It calls the staff turnover at Mercy \u201calarming,\u201d says the substitution of permanent providers for traveling physicians is a serious problem, and adds that high-risk patients are the most burdened by the frequent provider changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in total, full support of local providers here, every single one. \u2026 We don\u2019t lay blame for this deterioration with the local hospital administrator, the physicians, the nurses, anything like that,\u201d Willson said. \u201cThe issue is resources allocated to Durango, and Centura is the resource allocator. They are taking a lot of money out in the way of profits as our health care system is starved. That\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Patrick
Patrick Sharp, CEO of Mercy Regional Medical Center, said staff turnover has been a problem, but \u201cour commitment to quality is unwavering.\u201d (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Turnover numbers<\/div>\n

Mercy CEO Patrick Sharp said the hospital is facing the issue head-on, acknowledging the turnover rates, hiring issues and resulting community concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that we have had turnover,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as a leader, I have two options: I can either spend my time looking in the rearview mirror, or I can look ahead and say, \u2018What can we do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2016, 67 providers left Mercy and 84 new medical providers were hired, according to the hospital.<\/p>\n

Over the same time period, 20 primary care providers left Mercy. In 2021, the medical center hired 26 new providers who will begin providing care in 2022. Of those, eight are primary care physicians.<\/p>\n

Mercy also has 32 new hires starting in the next month, including 13 registered nurses, five medical assistants, two respiratory therapists and other roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might lose institutional knowledge. \u2026 That doesn\u2019t mean they (the incoming providers) are not very capable, strong and competent physicians and AAP (advanced practice providers),\u201d Sharp said. \u201cOur commitment to quality is unwavering.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Murphy looked at 2018 photos of clinic staff members at Mercy, the turnover was apparent. Of the 52 staff members and providers pictured, 43 of his former colleagues were gone, he said.<\/p>\n

In these conditions, sometimes the most high-risk patients are affected the most.<\/p>\n

\"Makenna
Makenna Kingery, medical assistant, gets medical supplies on Thursday in the cardiology department at Mercy Regional Medical Center. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mercy is the main provider for patients without insurance or with Medicare or Medicaid in the area. When it does not have available providers, those patients have fewer options, the provider group said.<\/p>\n

Turnover can also affect continuity of care. It can mean new prescriptions don\u2019t take multiple conditions into account, or the new doctor doesn\u2019t know to follow up on the effectiveness of past prescriptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have continuous care, you don\u2019t have quality care. That is demonstrated with empirical studies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sharp disagreed. The hospital\u2019s care has been rated highly by external evaluations. In 2021, Mercy hospital was one of only 13.6% of hospitals to receive Healthgrades CMS 5-star rating for the sixth consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Mercy is not becoming a \u201cfeeder hospital,\u201d Sharp said. Only 1.9% of about 19,000 emergency room patients were transferred in fiscal year 2021. Most had severe trauma diagnosis, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe perception is we\u2019re not able to take care of people locally, and that\u2019s just not true,\u201d he said. \u201cOur physicians and our nurses continue to do an outstanding job despite being in a pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiring challenges, retention solutions<\/div>\n

Across Colorado, 38% of facilities anticipate staff member shortages within the next week, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have pockets of areas where we are short-staffed,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cWe have open positions right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango\u2019s remote, rural location is one of the top challenges. Some specialists must take more on-call shifts because of the smaller teams in rural settings than in urban locations.<\/p>\n

\"Jessica
Jessica Grubbs, RN, front, and Shannon O\u2019Black, RN, work in the cardiology department Thursday at Mercy Regional Medical Center. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As a Level 3 trauma destination, it must have a trauma surgeon on call 24\/7 every day of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have staffed up our general surgery department to make sure the call burden does not get overwhelming for them,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cThat\u2019s the benefit of being part of a system, that we have the financial resources to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Housing costs are rising, and candidates have to be a good fit for both the clinics and the community. People are also self-selecting out of the health care profession during a time of \u201ctremendous burnout,\u201d Sharp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysicians, along with our nurses and our front-line staff \u2013 they are the heroes of today. With this second wave now, there\u2019s not much left in the tank for them,\u201d he said. \u201cThe pandemic has slowed the pipeline for sure. All the challenges of rural health care have not gone away.\u201d<\/p>\n

To retain hospital staff members, Centura recently invested more than $66 million to increase wages across its 17 hospitals in Colorado and Kansas. That included a $3.6 million investment in Mercy associates.<\/p>\n

The hospital has implemented sign-on bonuses, relocation incentives and in-house educational opportunities.<\/p>\n

Looking to Centura<\/div>\n

Even as Mercy acts to address some of the impacts of the pandemic to its staff members, the provider group pointed to Centura Health to address some of the more longstanding issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn discussions with Patrick Sharp, his heart is in the right place. \u2026 He has intentions and ideas of correcting each one of these problems,\u201d said Robert Goodman, a retired orthopedic surgeon who worked at Mercy from 1980 to 2014. \u201cOne question: \u2018Is Centura going to let him do that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He hoped for assurances that Centura is listening to the local administration and supporting the decisions that are made.<\/p>\n

Murphy said people were already leaving in his final years at the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the main reason people left was a difficult work environment,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cPhysicians usually don\u2019t leave practice due to compensation. They usually leave if their services aren\u2019t valued.\u201d<\/p>\n

As outsiders to management decisions, the providers hesitated to offer solutions. But Murphy said a culture change at Centura Health could help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe culture of the supervising organizations, Centura and Centura Physician Health Group, I think needs to be changed,\u201d he said. \u201cIdeally, management of physicians and clinics should return to local management, responsive to local issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Sharp and the providers shared support of the health care staff members at the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe burnout and the burden that our medical professionals have gone through in the last two years \u2013 we need to continue to be there for them,\u201d Sharp said.<\/p>\n

Neighbors can make them a meal or help them with fall projects as the front-line workers pull long shifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelp support them,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cBecause they are truly the unsung heroes in our community, and they need to be lifted up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Medical center\u2019s leadership outlines staffing issues, future solutions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,1255,28,68,1961,668],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-employment","tag-headlines","tag-mercy-regional-medical-center","tag-private-health-care","tag-public-health"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43989"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}