A Missouri hospital and surgery center have become national news as an example of the competition for patients that is playing out across the country. An Associated Press story reports that the Moberly Regional Medical Center in Moberly, Mo., refused to grant a transfer agreement to the Surgery Center of North Central Missouri, which would allow the surgery center’s physicians to send patients to the hospital in an emergency. Although the surgery center had transfer agreements with two other hospitals 30 to 50 miles away, it wasn’t able to operate for months because it didn’t meet the requirement of having local hospital emergency coverage. After the governor’s office intervened and permitted the surgery center to open its doors, the hospital filed a lawsuit seeking to revoke the surgery center’s license for jeopardizing the health of patients who, in an emergency, must be transferred at least 30 miles. In the meantime, two Missouri legislators have introduced legislation that would eliminate the transfer agreement or broaden it to include distant hospitals, or allow physicians who invest in surgery centers to have staff privileges at local hospitals.
"Hospitals claim that surgery centers are eating into their patient base," Missouri Rep. and physician Robert Schaaf told the AP. "The point is, it's not their patient base. It's every competitors' patient base. It is in the public's best interest to have more competition in health care, not less."
