There must be more to the story of our county hospital awarding an anesthesia services contract to someone other than the incumbent, our new medical school.
People at Texas Tech are claiming that they will now close the anesthesiology department and will stop providing clinical services through their local clinics.
The hospital board has seven members. The vote was 5-2 in favor of hiring the New York based firm. The two votes against the change have significant ties to the local money powers.
More interesting is that chairman and vice-chairman were the two negative votes. They seem to have lost control of the board.
Is a message being sent by the hospital board to Texas Tech? There has been talk about a new hospital on the west side that would be affiliated with Texas Tech. The hospital is building clinics around town that are competitive to Texas Tech’s.
Is this about money, quality of service, or power?
The article in the Times certainly did not tell us.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
These board problems and rifts can be very detrimental to our oommunity. Do you know if their minutes are public record? Closing down a department already and not training our students, many who could stay and serve in this community, in this important field is very bad news. My hope is that this is not the beginning of a domino effect where other departments also get shut down. This is similar to hiring out of town companies and consultants by our city, by Fort Bliss, etc. Here is a case where El Paso (UMC) has the resources right next door and still chooses NY. NY must have had some pretty good “PR” to get this …. or, as you say…is something else going on here…
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Board minutes:
http://www.umcelpaso.org/WebShell/umcep.nsf/DefaultFrameset/Site+Defaults?OpenDocument&DocID=8E164B0DDE46203887256D85006DAA51
Brutus
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Great. Thank you.
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Follow the money?
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I think the underlying problem here is the same core issue that has been discussed here time and again. It’s “how” things get done.
Some people at UMC might be starting to feel that Texas Tech, and particularly some local Texas Tech power brokers, are trying to take over and diminish the roles of other local folks. According to some, Texas Tech and the med school have their own problems with internal, ego driven politics which have resulted in a number of talented recruits, including doctors, leaving.
Let’s face it, some people are probably feeling disrespected and are tired of being pushed around, railroaded, and dictated to by power brokers. Don’t forget that the local Texas Tech powers also recently exerted their influence over city officials to displace the railroad museum and obtain basically a free lease for space in the old depot.
Maybe the decision to contract with the NY firm was the wrong decision, but perhaps some of the Texas Tech proponents need to check their egos at the door if they care about outcomes rather than personal power.
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