New Emergency Room Physicians at MMC
By: Kayla Meyer, The Port Lavaca Wave
Memorial Medical Center has new emergency room doctors.
Through the Victoria Professional Medical Consultants, the new emergency room doctors began their practice at MMC Feb. 1, said Roshanda Gray, assistant administrator for MMC.
"We've gotten a lot of positive comments from patients and families of patients so far," Gray said.
The group consists of eight original physician partners and each doctor has extensive training and experience, a press release stated. The physicians include Brett Zimmerman, Peter Nguyen, Penny Thamwiwat, Louis Needleman, John Vaughan, Cindy Zimmerman, Patrick Schaner and Bon Gbalazeh.
Gray added that MMC previous emergency room doctors were part of a medical group.
"We're trying to make sure our expectations are being met. We did a reassessment of needs and expectations we had and asked were they met," Gray said.
With over 100 years of combined emergency medicine experience, the Victoria Professional Medical Consultants provide emergency room physicians that are "invested and committed to the success of their respective communities, hospitals, and colleagues," the press release stated.
"In our experience, corporate, non-local emergency medicine groups and staffing agencies, by way of their revolving door practitioners, rarely exhibit behaviors of ownership or pride in the hospitals for which they work," said Brett Zimmerman, head of the Victoria Professional Medical Consultants.
"This lack of investment and engagement translates into poor communication with medical staff, subpar patient ER experiences, and decreased hospital utilization," he added.
An initial objective of the group is to implement a seasoned, stable and recognizable nucleus of physicians to staff and manage MMC's emergency department and associated observation unit, according to the press release.
"Rest assured that your local emergency department is staffed by experienced and qualified emergency physician specialists that continually provide and promote best practices and evidence based medicine," it added.
Gray said the MMC emergency facilities, a physician always present, would be able to accommodate many different types of patients.
"We get all kinds OF patients that walk through the door, and this would be the best place for them to stop. We can treat, stabilize and transport if necessary," Gray said. "We can handle just about anything that comes through the door."
Members of the group also emphasized patients at MMC's emergency room would receive care from a physician rather than a midlevel provider.
"A midlevel provider is someone who is either a nurse practitioner or physicians assistant. A lot of places now have midlevel providers, but these at MMC are all medical doctors," Gray said.
By having medical doctors, patients would be able to receive a broader level of care, Gray added.
"They have a broader scope of service. Midlevels can do things up to a certain point and they have to work under a medical doctor," she said.
Gray said the new group of physicians is focused on patient care and customer satisfaction. According to the press release, the Victoria Professional Medical Consultants provide innovation within the emergency department in ways that will "improve the patient experience, significantly reduce wait times, and provide a quality of care that surpasses expectations."
"You have to have that trust element," she said. "They come to the hospital with new standards, trying to be the 'A' type of physicians. We hope people see a greater difference and overall, the patient experience will be much, much better."
Above all, Gray said patients would receive the highest quality of care with the new emergency room physicians group.
"We want to make sure that when patients come through the door of our emergency room, they will receive the best quality," Gray said. "I think having those physicians and knowing that it is all doctors adds to that element and will help alleviate any concerns and fears. They are very familiar and getting that caliber of people here, there is a different outlook of the emergency department because of change."