Virtua Lourdes ER Switches Staffing Firms as Nearly Two Dozen Clinicians Depart

Shore News Network, citing a report by the Inquirer, says nearly two dozen emergency department clinicians are leaving Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, after the health system changed the company that staffs its ER ^[1]. Virtua's contract with Envision Healthcare ended on Sept. 30, and the department moved to TeamHealth, which already staffs the rest of the Virtua system ^[1]. According to former medical director Dr. Monika Smith, 21 physicians and advanced practice providers were offered TeamHealth contracts; one accepted a continuing position, and several others agreed to work on an as-needed basis ^[1].

What the report establishes

The departing group includes physicians, advanced practice providers and several longtime leaders of the Camden emergency department ^[1]. The report's main points are these ^[1]:

• Former emergency department leaders said most of the existing team did not stay under the new contract arrangement ^[1].
• Some departing clinicians said the contracts they were offered included pay cuts of roughly 20% to 30% ^[1].
• Dr. Al Sacchetti, who spent more than four decades at Lourdes, is among those leaving ^[1].
• Sacchetti, Smith and former clinical operations director Ross Simcoe said they were not offered positions in the Lourdes emergency department, although they were offered roles elsewhere in the Virtua system ^[1].
• Virtua said it made the change to standardize emergency department staffing, and a spokesperson described Lourdes as the one outlier among the system's seven locations ^[1].
• Virtua said the Camden emergency department is fully prepared to support the community's needs through the transition to TeamHealth ^[1].
• There has been no public finding that the transition has caused unsafe care or inadequate ER coverage ^[1].

Why it matters

The report identifies continuity as the more immediate concern ^[1]. The departing team includes clinicians with decades of experience inside the hospital and in the surrounding Camden County community ^[1]. One former physician assistant described the loss this way: "We had over 100 years experience that they just let go." ^[1] The report adds that, for an emergency department, turnover of this kind can mean losing staff who know the hospital's specialists, its internal procedures and its patient population ^[1].

The report also places the change in a regional setting. It describes Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes as a major South Jersey medical center that serves patients from across the region, and on that basis treats the staffing transition as more than an internal contracting change ^[1].

The two accounts in the report differ in emphasis. Virtua presents the move as a way to create consistency across its network, while departing clinicians have raised concerns about the contract terms and about the loss of longtime staff ^[1].

What to watch next

The report poses the question of whether Virtua can make up for the experience that is leaving without effects on wait times, staffing levels or continuity of care, in what it calls one of the region's busiest emergency departments ^[1]. The items to follow are these ^[1]:

• Wait times, staffing levels and continuity of care at the Lourdes emergency department, the three measures the report names ^[1].
• Whether any public finding emerges on care safety or ER coverage; the report says none has been made ^[1].
• The part played by the clinicians who agreed to as-needed work as TeamHealth takes over the department ^[1].
• Whether Sacchetti, Smith and Simcoe take the roles they were offered elsewhere in the Virtua system ^[1].