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Power struggle the primary ill at OH surgical center

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, September 9, 2004

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Money is always at issue for any new and fledgling business, but owners of the New Albany Surgical Hospital in Ohio say that bringing in money isn't the problem. It's where the money goes once it gets there that's causing a schism between different management factions.

According to a story in the Columbus Dispatch, at least $1.4 million is at stake in a management dispute between two factions among the owners of the hospital. On one side of the table is Nashville-based company Surgical Alliance, a minority owner, that alleges that the majority owners, a group of 30 central Ohio orthopedic surgeons, are refusing to pay management and other fees.

The physicians, however, have claimed that the money was not paid because of performance issues concerning Surgical Alliance. Furthermore, three of the physicians have now filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, claiming that their actions are in response to an alleged plot by Surgical Alliance to appoint a seventh member to the evenly-split, six-person hospital board without observing agreed-upon protocols, which would allow SA to gain majority control and "rubber-stamp" the overdue payments.

The only thing all parties can agree on is that the hospital, which opened in December of 2003 and performs orthopedic and neurological procedures, is not in financial trouble. Both sides have described the showdown as solely a management dispute - one which will likely now be settled in arbitration, upon the recommendation of Franklin County Judge Deborah O'Neill.

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