037 - Physician Ownership and Group Wisdom Prevail Through Crises

Christopher Obetz, MD, is the CEO of an organization which started with a handful of physicians 30 years ago, and now they have over 150 physicians and APPs. The group staffs nine emergency rooms in the Minneapolis St. Paul area. One year ago, Dr. Obetz was my guest on Episode #15 (Title: Emergency Care Consultants CEO: The Incalculable Value of Physician Careers). At the time, the ECC leader and his organization were faced with a trio of crises: <br />•The Covid pandemic and sequelae in Emergency Medicine <br />•Unexpected closure of a hospital with resultant overstaffing<br />•The George Floyd murder devastated the community around ECC’s flagship hospital<br /><br />Patient volumes dropped by 40-50% during the early months of the pandemic as patients stayed clear of hospitals in order to avoid infection by Covid. ECC, which was already generously staffed, faced overstaffing as a result of reduced volumes and the hospital closure. When I spoke to Dr. Obetz last year, he wasn’t sure if the values of the organization or even the organization itself would survive. Could they get through an unprecedented nosedive in income? Could they honor the employment agreements with physicians scheduled to start in the spring of 2021? And in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, could they examine their own biases and emerge as a trusted source of care in their stricken community?<br />Dr. Obetz describes how the impact of the pandemic evolved: from the initial emptied-out emergency departments to a swelling tide of patients overwhelming their EDs. The current “boarding crisis” resulted from greatly increased demand for ED visits and inpatient beds. One reason is the pent-up demand and more advanced disease because care was delayed for typical medical conditions. The second is prolonged hospital stays for critically ill patients suffering from Covid. Patients are “boarded” when there is no ICU or regular hospital beds available and they end up receiving critical care, sometimes for days, in the emergency department. The effe