News in brief - March 6, 2006

Ark. surgeons keep privileges while economic credentialing case proceeds - New Orleans' emergency care making a comeback - Awards honor physicians' efforts - Two medical schools receive big gifts - AMA receives award for CME contributions

Ark. surgeons keep privileges while economic credentialing case proceeds

The Arkansas Supreme Court in February ruled that a group of cardiologists could continue to practice at Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock while a lawsuit disputing the hospital's economic credentialing policy winds its way through the courts.

Six doctors sued Baptist Health in February 2004 to block a hospital policy that denies privileges to staff who have ownership in competing hospitals. The physicians are partners in Little Rock Cardiology Clinic and have partial ownership in Arkansas Heart Hospital, which competes with Baptist.

The high court's Feb. 2 decision upheld a lower court ruling from the Pulaski County Circuit Court. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Hannah wrote that preventing the doctors from practicing disrupted "the physicians ability to provide proper healthcare to their patients, to the detriment of the doctor-patient relationship."

The court also affirmed the lower court's ruling that Baptist's policy violated Arkansas' Deceptive Trade Practices Act and that the doctors case can proceed to trial.

"To have a court come out and say that the doctor-patient relationship is paramount, is very powerful," said David Wroten, executive vice president of the Arkansas Medical Society. The ruling also sends a message that courts can review hospitals' credentialing systems if they violate state law, he said.

New Orleans' emergency care making a comeback

Tulane University Hospital & Clinic reopened its emergency and other inpatient and outpatient services Feb. 14. At the same time, Ochsner Clinic Foundation and Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division announced plans to re-establish Level 1 trauma care in the New Orleans area.

Tulane University's emergency department reopened with five operating rooms, an adult and a pediatric intensive care unit, a pharmacy and several cardiology laboratories. It also has 63 out of the hospital's 235 beds ready for use. To date, the facility has had more than $90 million in repairs.

Within the next month, the LSU/Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans, in conjunction with the Ochsner Clinic Foundation, will lease space at Ochsner's Elmwood Hospital in Jefferson Parish. LSU will temporarily house its trauma facility there until the end of the year.

Awards honor physicians' efforts

The American Medical Association Foundation will recognize four physicians who aid underserved populations with the Pride in the Profession Award, to be presented March 12 during the Excellence in Medicine Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The recipients are:

Theodore Wymyslo, MD, a family physician at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. He and a colleague established the Reach Out of Montgomery County program, which provides care to low-income patients who have little or no health insurance.
William Schecter, MD, co-founder of Operation Access in San Francisco and a professor of clinical surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.
Marianito "Mark" Asperilla, MD, an infectious disease specialist who opened the Charlotte County HIV Clinic in Port Charlotte, Fla.
Sylvia Campbell, MD, a general surgeon in Tampa, Fla., who provides care to thousands of patients each year who have no health insurance.

Urologist Catherine deVries, MD, of Salt Lake City, will receive the Dr. Nathan Davis International Award in Medicine. Dr. deVries established International Volunteers in Urology to enhance urological education and training worldwide.

Anne Louise Barlow, MD, MPH, an internist in Fernandina Beach, Fla., will receive the Jack B. McConnell, MD, Award for Excellence in Volunteerism. Dr. Barlow oversees a program dedicated to giving care to the medically underserved, especially women and children.

Two medical schools receive big gifts

Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, which is not associated with Baylor University, received a $100 million pledge for the college's cancer center, the largest donation in the school's history. Dan L. Duncan, a member of the school's board, a cancer survivor and chair of Enterprise Products Partners, a large energy company, gifted the money. The cancer center will be renamed the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center.

Further north, The University of South Dakota School of Medicine received $20 million from a Sioux Falls, S.D., philanthropist, T. Denny Sanford. The gift is intended to improve the quality of the school's medical education and resources, with a particular emphasis on growing the pediatrics department.

The school will be renamed the Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota.

AMA receives award for CME contributions

The American Medical Association's Division of Continuing Physician Professional Development and the American Academy of Family Physicians jointly received the Frances M. Maitland Pharmaceutical Alliance for Continuing Medical Education Award during the Alliance for CME meeting in January.

The award, endowed by the Pharmaceutical Alliance for CME, was given in recognition of the two groups' contributions to CME through their development of CME credit for point-of-care and other nontraditional CME activities.

The AMA's Barbara Schneidman, MD, MPH, vice president of medical education, also was recognized. She received the Frances M. Maitland Memorial Lecture Award for lifelong commitment, dedication and significant contributions as a mentor and colleague.