St. Cloud (Minn.) Orthopedics claims that the region's largest health system, CentraCare, is trying to push it out of business by ending their decadeslong practice of working together to care for orthopedic trauma patients, according to a June 23 report from the Star Tribune.
In the fall, CentraCare-owned St. Cloud Hospital informed the orthopedic group that come January, its physicians would no longer be on call for providing orthopedic trauma care at the hospital.
This has significantly reduced the number of patients seeking follow-up care at St. Cloud Orthopedics, according to the report. The practice has been providing care at the hospital for over 60 years.
Four years ago, CentraCare announced a new orthopedics partnership with University of Minnesota Physicians, but continued to keep St. Cloud Orthopedics on call for orthopedic trauma patients.
The decision to remove St. Cloud Orthopedics physicians from the on-call list was made without seeking input from the community or the hospital, according to St. Cloud Orthopedics surgeon and President Kim Schaap, MD.
"We have no formal relationship with CentraCare — other than that we've provided service for St. Cloud Hospital and the community at large for 60-some years," Dr. Schaap told the Star Tribune. "We sat at the table with them for years trying to develop some sort of partnership. And then they walked away."
Since losing its trauma connection to the hospital, St. Cloud Orthopedics has lost two of its specialists.
"As we evolve to a regional destination for orthopedics with cutting-edge care options only available through an academic medical center, CentraCare has partnered with the University of Minnesota Physicians to bring expert specialists to central Minnesota," a CentraCare spokesperson told the Star Tribune.
Dr. Schaap told the Tribune that by excluding St. Cloud Orthopedics, CentraCare is "further monopolizing CentraCare's control of patient referrals and care."