A new beginning at Enloe?

We can’t say we’re happy that the Enloe Medical Center Board of Trustees last week selected the group Medcorp to provide anesthesia services at Chico’s only hospital. (See “Enloe acts on anesthesia".) From our perspective, the trustees traded in a well-maintained Cadillac for a Chevy missing some of its parts. The larger, more experienced group of the two seeking the contract, Anesthesia Associates of Chico, had more doctors on board and would have provided better service right away.

Perhaps the trustees decided they couldn’t afford a Cadillac. If the Chevy runs—and at this point, with Medcorp boasting only three permanent doctors, that’s a big if—and provides good patient care while saving the hospital money, the decision could turn out to have been the right one. If not, we’ll know soon enough.

It’s not clear what the hospital’s medical staff will do now. Most of them, we know, wanted AAC to get the contract. They’re concerned about quality of care and know that AAC would have provided it. But at this point we have to support the trustees’ decision. The doctors’ own Medical Executive Committee supports it, and the hospital’s chief of surgery has pledged to provide strong oversight of the new group.

We hope some of the anesthesiologists affiliated with AAC will choose to give Medcorp a shot, at least for a year or two. Certainly that’s easier than packing up the family and furniture, selling the house—not easy in today’s market—and moving elsewhere. If not, we thank them for their years of service to the community and wish them well.

It’s clear to us that the trustees are making an effort to open lines of communication with the doctors and other employee groups. In early June, we said in this space that if in the future the Board of Trustees wanted to avoid the kind of crisis they were facing at the time, it needed to become more open and willing to make tough decisions. It has now done both. This is progress.

As we mentioned before, we believe the board would benefit from having new members, including doctors elected by the medical staff, as well as nurses and technicians. And we’d like the board to hold periodic open meetings to hear from and speak with the rest of the community.

In the meantime, we hope Enloe is beginning to heal.