In early May, physicians – fed up with three years of unanswered concerns about patient safety at Erlanger’s emergency department – took the extreme action of making a “no confidence” vote on the hospital’s top management, specifically hospital CEO Kevin Spiegel and two of his aides. On Thursday – nearly four months later – the Erlanger Health System Board of Trustees decided to talk about it publicly, briefly.
But, patients, don’t get your hopes up. Nothing came of it. The board tabled the discussion.
The truth is, they probably wouldn’t have said or done this much had the no-confidence vote and the letter not become public thanks to whistleblowers and the dogged determination of Times Free Press reporter Elizabeth Fite and her editors.
Fite’s first story about the matter was published on June 23, and it outlined medical staff concerns about chronic operational issues, such as inefficiency, understaffing, poor morale and policies that cause overcrowding in the emergency department and operating rooms – all items that were detailed in the Medical Executive Committee’s letter to the board dated May 9.
“Patient safety issues have been raised with management since 2015,” the physicians wrote in that letter. “Despite over 3 years of complaints and concerns by patients and physicians, hospital management has been ineffective in addressing these issues. There exists a lack of accountability in senior management who are either unable or unwilling to effect necessary changes to insure patient safety.”