At Flagstaff Medical Center, the emergency department does not employ doctors the same way as the rest of the hospital system.
Although the hospital is run by Northern Arizona Healthcare, doctors in the emergency room are actually employed by Flagstaff Emergency Physicians, a company that contracts out the doctors’ labor to NAH.
The hospital system is expanding this setup by reaching a similar agreement with FEP for the emergency department at Verde Valley Medical Center. Beginning Jan. 15 of 2021, the emergency doctors at VVMC will be employees of FEP, contracted for their services at the hospital.
“We think that systematizing our emergency services is really important because this represents our front door,” VVMC Chief Administrative Officer Ron Haase said. “Over the years we have been inconsistent at Verde Valley Medical Center in how patients receive our service here. Some of that has come out loud and clear in the last several months as we have met with the community in Sedona.
“That’s not saying anything about our doctors here, because we think the doctors here are really good. Probably what it says as much as anything is our leadership. We haven’t provided the same consistent and effective leader- ship that we need to, and Flagstaff Emergency Physicians — this is all they do, and we think they do it really well. We think they will help us improve, on a consistent basis, that front door.”
Haase stressed that the change would only be affecting the emergency department at VVMC in Cottonwood and that in Sedona, where the hospital system recently announced their intention to maintain the status quo, nothing is expected to change. Nurses and other support staff at VVMC will also stay the same, with the change only happening to the staff of doctors.
Haase does not expect that the change will lead to a major difference in the financial situation of the hospital, saying that the cost of employing the doctors through FEP is expected to be roughly the same as employing them directly. Haase said that the main focus is instead on trying to improve the patient experience, something that the hospital feels they have fallen behind on.
“We ask people in surveys that we follow up with from their visits, ‘Would you recommend the hospital?’” Haase said. “It is a universal metric across the country. It may be the very first thing that people look at…. We’re doing OK but we need to be doing better than OK. Everyone across the nation is trying to do better, so if we’re just staying the same, we’re losing ground.”
“The ED is where the majority of our hospital patients first enter, so it sets the whole tone for their experience, so that’s why it’s so important,” NAH Chief Experience Officer Trista MacVittie said.
According to Haase, the decision was made in consultation with physicians at the hospital in the weeks leading up to the change, and they were told of the final decision on Oct. 9. The hospital is hoping to work with those doctors to keep them in the fold and ease the transition.
