Hospitals are starting to get it in the wake of Tuscon’s ER crisis. To get specialists to take call, they are opening up their pocketbooks. It’s about time that physicians take charge of their profession:
In Tucson, paying a single specialist to cover the ER can cost up to $1,000 a night. Hospital CEOs estimate paying for adequate specialty coverage “” neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, hand surgeons, vascular surgeons, general surgeons, gastroenterologists, and ear, nose and throat doctors “” is going to cost them $1 million to $3 million a year. With total hospital revenue margins running at only about $5 million to $6 million, in a good year, that’s a huge “” and likely unsustainable “” hit on the bottom line.
(via a reader tip)
