CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — Back in December, the Nueces County Hospital District and CHRISTUS Spohn reached a 6-year agreement to keep their Emergency Medicine Residency Program after months of discussion and community input.
Although Spohn agreed to the 6-year deal, doctors and residents said the deal doesn’t address long-term concerns. They said it hasn’t given doctors and residents the comfort they need to recruit the past two years. That’s why Nueces County Judge Connie Scott’s committee is working on a longer-term solution.
KRIS 6 spoke with Nueces County Commissioners John Marez and Brent Chesney, both of whom are on Scott’s committee. They said the ideal solution is for Spohn to commit for at least 10 years.
The committee has met twice since the December decision to keep the program, whereas they are giving Spohn two years to commit long-term.
“Those first two years — if an agreement is not complete, then any resident that comes into our community may not be guaranteed to finish their residency here,” Nueces County Commissioner Precinct 3 John Marez said.
Commissioner Precinct 4 Brent Chesney said Spohn representatives have not attended any of the committee meetings.
President and Chief Executive Officer of CHRISTUS Health Ernie Sadau said in a letter, “In my tenure as CEO at CHRISTUS Health, we often make difficult decisions in many of our ministries, but we always do so with the kind of thoughtful discernment needed to allow us to continue to provide needed community healthcare services for at least the next 100 years. We appreciate the dialogue about this program that we have had over the last three months, internally and publicly. Now, it is time for our team to prioritize access care for the millions of lives we touch, with special attention to the poor and vulnerable in the Coastal Bend Community.”
This week, the committee discussed long-term solutions that do not include Spohn.
“We got a long-term contract with the Hospital District with Spohn, so there’s no reason we couldn’t mirror that long-term contract with Spohn. We’re tied with Spohn til 2036, so why we couldn’t do something of that nature? I don’t know why,” Chesney said.
They also established a small group to meet with other hospital systems that may be interested in taking on a similar program.
“We do want to ensure that if we don’t get Spohn’s agreement or they indicate that they are not going to go beyond that shorter term, that we agreed to then find another long-term agreement with another system,” Marez said.
But regardless of which hospital the program resides in, well-qualified indigent care will stay the same.
“There’s always pushback on something. I’ve gotten zero negative responses on keeping this program. This community overwhelmingly wants this program to stay and if it's with Spohn, great. And if it's not, that’s fine too. Wherever they are as long as they’re in this community, we’re going to be in great shape,” Chesney said.
The committee said they are aiming for a permanent solution within the next two years. They will continue meeting as well as talking with other hospital systems.
