By Hector Flores
Jerry Laricchiuta, president of the Civil Service Employee Association Nassau County Local 830, the union that represents hospital staff, said the move isn¹t fair, and likened it to union busting. ³These doctors have dedicated themselves to this hospital and this community,² Laricchiuta said. ³They have been providing the highest quality care to the residents of Nassau County for decades, and all of a sudden they¹re no longer qualified? What is really going on here is that they want to get rid of CSEA doctors.²
Under new hospital guidelines, which will take effect in six to nine months, all E.R. doctors will be required to be residency-trained and board certified in emergency medicine. But Laricchiuta insists that the new requirements are impossible for certain doctors to meet. ³The current staff are all board certified, some in their specialty,² he said. ³The doctors are willing to obtain the additional emergency room certification, but they aren¹t even given a chance under the new requirements.²
Laricchiuta explained that the residency prerequisite requires doctors to complete a three-year training program, which many staff members are not qualified to take, despite their years of emergency room experience. ³If the motive is to improve quality of care, who would you rather have treat you or your family, a doctor with 15 to 20 years of experience or some resident, fresh out of medical school?² he said.
Daniel Kane, president and CEO of the Nassau Health Care Corporation, which runs the East Meadow hospital, said its E.R. doctors are superb, but the upgrade will make them better. ³Today, the standard of care in teaching hospitals and most other hospitals is to employ residency-trained and certified physicians in the emergency departments,² Kane said. ³By upgrading the qualifications of our emergency physicians, we have an opportunity to enhance the quality of care provided to over 80,000 patients being treated yearly in our emergency room.²
Of the 20 full-time emergency room doctors at NUMC, five are board certified in emergency medicine. Of those five, only two are residency-trained in emergency medicine. That means only those two will be allowed to stay after the new standards go into effect.
Shelley Lotenberg, NUMC spokeswoman, said, ³Only those doctors who are board certified in emergency medicine and residency-trained will be permitted to work in the capacity between the six to nine months of the transition period. This is because residency training takes up to three years to complete. The emergency room doctors have residency training in other fields, but not in emergency medicine.²
Nicholas LaMorte, CSEA co-president, said that the new standards will mean the firing of 18 emergency room doctors, a measure he described as union busting. ³These doctors are CSEA members,² LaMorte said. ³If the administration wants to change their game plan, then fine, meet with us. But to all of a sudden change the standard? That is just absurd. We can file improper union practice, and we intend to protect our members in this hospital.²
Kane explained that the upgrade in standards is by no means an attack on hospital union workers. ³That is not our focus,² he said. ³There are 3,000 members of the union, and why would we focus on 20 people? I feel bad for the individuals, but I must focus on the community needs and what will benefit them.²
Scott Farber, a paramedic and the EMS coordinator for the East Meadow Fire Department, said that the current emergency room staff is excellent, and he sees no need to change the standards. ³I have been transporting patients to this hospital for 15 years,² he said. ³I¹m also a Suffolk County police officer, and in 1996, I was involved in a car accident and requested to be air lifted to this hospital.²
Farber explained that in Suffolk County, the usual protocol is that officers get treated at Stony Brook Hospital, but Farber demanded to be taken to NUMC. ³I know what this hospital is capable of, and I requested to be taken here,² he said. ³I¹m standing now because of the hard work they do here.²
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HFlores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000, ext.283
