The battle between Crystal Run and CRMC heats up

As of June 1, 62 doctors have severed ties with the hospital

By TOM KANE

ROCK HILL, NY —This is not about power. This is not about money,” said Dr. Hal Teitelbaum, managing partner for Crystal Run Medical Center.

“I’m a physician first and a businessman second,” he said to a room full of center staff and members of the press at a June 1 press conference.

“I am not anti-hospital. I’m about patient care,” he said.

Then, Teitelbaum launched into a long list of grievances his medical center has had with Catskill Regional Medical Center (CRMC) over the past year and a half. One after another, he ticked off examples of medical situations in which he alleged the care was short of the mark.

There was the case of the expectant mother whose unborn baby was in fetal distress and a c-section was called for. The key to the medical box containing the needed drug could not be found. The c-section had to begin under local anesthesia with the patient still awake.

Then, he cited a case of a baby in breach position and a call to an anesthesiologist that went unanswered for more than an hour.

Next, there was a case of a nurse who administered a paralyzing medication instead of a sedating one, which left the patient awake and unable to express distress.

In all, Teitelbaum cited 13 such cases.

“We believe that the hospital is being mismanaged,” he said. “After our frequent and insistent complaints, nothing was done. There is a climate of denial, and a failure to appropriately address quality concerns persists.”

He further alleged that “Physicians with lucrative financial contracts at CRMC are not meeting appropriate quality standards and they fear that disclosure of these quality concerns will result in the termination of these contracts.”

But what about the Department of Health (DOH) that monitors such complaints? What have they done?

While DOH has investigated these complaints and issued a statement of deficiencies, it has not publicly contradicted CRMC’s CEO Arthur Brien, who has stated that there are no quality problems at the hospital.

CRMC’s response

“The DOH has found no validity to these complaints,” Brien said in response to Teitelbaum’s complaints. “They have conducted many investigations and, although there has not been an official report, all the feedback we have received from them is positive.”

Then why is Teitelbaum still complaining?

“He wants to control this hospital,” Brien said. “In the year 2000, he explicitly stated that he wanted to be director of medical affairs and his assistant to be CEO of the hospital, and the hospital board rejected his request. He has an enormous ego. Since then, he has been attempting every means he could to discredit us. We have a spurned suitor on our hands. This entire fiasco is about money and control of the hospital.”

“The complaints from Crystal Run are under investigation,” said Joe DiMura, spokesman for the DOH. “If there is any accuracy to the complaints, a report will be released on the matter.”

In the meantime, 62 doctors from Crystal Run stopped referring patients to CRMC as of June 1, and severed all ties with the institution. Crystal Run patients who require hospitalization are being referred to Orange Regional Medical Center in Middletown. It’s a move that could cost CRMC some $7 million in revenue.