Becker's Hospital Review

35 35 CEO/STRATEGY Tenet, Detroit Medical Center to sever ties with 300 physicians By Ayla Ellison D etroit Medical Center, part of Dal- las-based Tenet Healthcare, ended its longtime affiliation with Troy, Mich.- based Wayne State University Physician Group May 15. In a letter to university colleagues May 2, Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson, MD, said he was informed by Tenet that it intended to terminate Detroit Medical Center's affiliation with Wayne State, begin- ning with the physician group's contract, ac- cording to the Detroit Free Press. e decision to terminate the contract, which covers about 300 physicians who provide care in DMC hospitals and clinics, comes aer tensions have flared between the two parties for months. In April, about six months aer finalizing a contract extension, the physician group sent a letter to DMC officials threatening to termi- nate their partnership with DMC if a contract was not finalized by May 15. e ultimatum prompted DMC to begin exploring other op- tions, according to Detroit Medical Center CEO Anthony Tedeschi, MD. "Wayne State University School of Medicine's letter sought to use a threat to patient care as leverage in what had been a collaborative negotiation between long-standing partners and set in motion steps to establish alterna- tives to WSUSOM and to forge a new future that will provide a stable long-term environ- ment for our patients, physicians, students, interns, residents and fellows," Dr. Tedeschi said in a news release issued May 2. DMC and Wayne State have separate con- tracts in place for Wayne State's residency programs and undergraduate medical edu- cation, and those contracts are still in effect, according to the Detroit Free Press. Dr. Tedeschi said DMC will immediately be- gin searching for a new long-term academic partner. "We hope to work with WSUSOM to minimize disruption to the community and to our valued physicians," he said. Wayne State University Physician Group President and CEO Charles Shanley, MD, told the Detroit Free Press he was under the impression negotiations with DMC had been making progress, and he did not know why the hospital decided to end the contract. n CEO, CFO of Missouri hospital resign over inappropriate reimbursements By Ayla Ellison T he CEO and CFO of Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hos- pital in Maryland Heights, Mo., resigned after the hospital board discovered the executives violated the hospital's paid time off policy, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The hospital board requested and accepted the resignations of president and CEO Lauri Tanner and vice president and CFO Jean Bardwell, effective May 2. In a statement to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the hospital said the two executives were allegedly paid for time off "to which they were not entitled." The hospital said the board is demanding Ms. Tanner and Ms. Bardwell repay the hospital, but it did not disclose the amount of inappropriate reimbursement the executives allegedly received. The board's executive committee initially identified the potential irregularities, and the board subsequently launched an investiga- tion, which allegedly revealed the two executives violated hospital policy, according to the report. To help prevent a similar issue from occurring in the future, the hospital has put corrective measures in place. Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital COO Brett Moorehouse has been named interim president and CEO, and a hospital board member will serve as interim CFO, according to the St. Louis Busi- ness Journal. n Klasko only healthcare exec among Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business for 2018 By Leo Vartorella S tephen Klasko, MD, president and CEO of Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health, was the only hospital executive to be named among Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business for 2018. The list honors 100 leaders worldwide in various fields who have done something in the last year to shake up their industry. Dr. Klasko was honored "for making large-scale healthcare personal," part- ly for his efforts in training Jefferson Health physi- cians to use the system's telehealth platform. Dr. Klasko also was praised for his "hotspotting" initiative, which pairs medical students with pa- tients who chronically overuse the ER to help teach them self-care skills. The program has lowered un- necessary ER visits in the system by 60 percent. "With AI on the horizon, training humans to be better robots doesn't make sense," Dr. Klasko told Fast Company. "The doctor of the future needs to be self-aware and empathetic." n

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