William Beaumont Hospital responded after reports surfaced that a 51-year-old man died Jan. 21 during a routine colonoscopy -- and a source in the media blamed the outsourcing of anesthesia management.
Beaumont said it was grieving the loss of its patient, but defended its anesthesia management company Northstar.
"We express our deepest sympathy to the deceased’s loved ones. Health privacy laws prohibit us from commenting on any patient incident," NorthStar said in a statement, adding:
"NorthStar has been providing anesthesia services in the Detroit area and Michigan since 2015 and at Beaumont’s southern hospitals for the last five months. The vast majority of our physicians and CRNAs at Beaumont are deeply rooted in their local communities, and some had previously worked at Beaumont for decades. Beaumont turned to NorthStar to manage both CRNAs and anesthesiologists under one organization to follow national best practices as anesthesiologists were previously employees of a different anesthesia management company."
They were responding directly to a report in Deadline Detroit that claimed the man died while he was under anesthesia and couldn't be revived, noting "there were intense criticisms raised about COO Carolyn Wilson’s decision to award Texas-based NorthStar Anesthesia a contract to manage anesthesiology procedures beginning January 1 at Beaumont’s flagship Royal Oak hospital. The contract sparked the exodus of about half of Royal Oak’s fellowship trained anesthesiologists, some 50 Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), and more than a dozen prominent surgeons."
The report said the goal of outsourcing was to reduce costs and said staffing had been reduced as a result. NorthStar refuted that.
"Contrary to the story’s false assertions, for example, Beaumont staffing and coverage models have not changed at all since NorthStar took over."
While a family grieves a lost loved one, the hospital added that its anesthesiologists are highly trained and skilled. Because of privacy laws, they could not release any information about the cause or circumstances of death for the man who died during a routine procedure. Deadline Detroit named him as Richard Curbelo, who was caring for his 79-year-old mother. She suffers from dementia.
Curbelo's final text to his fiancee said, "“I love you Connie… thanks for being there for me.” She waited for word of his procedure all day only to learn that night he had died. Colonoscopy is considered a very safe procedure and the most reliable way to test for -- and get early treatment for -- colon cancer.
Still, statistics show about one person dies in every 14,000 procedures.
Related
"NorthStar anesthesiologists and CRNAs, whether veterans of the hospitals we serve, new recruits, or temporary staff, are highly qualified, highly skilled, and credentialed through Beaumont’s rigorous vetting process. The majority of our anesthesiologists at the Beaumont North facilities are fellowship-trained, and they have proven track records for providing excellent quality care. In fact, 21 of the 29 anesthesiologists we’ve recruited who are new to Beaumont in the north are fellowship-trained. In addition, more than 98 percent of our total CRNAs across Beaumont Health were previous Beaumont employees, as were more than 75 percent of the anesthesiologists at Beaumont, Royal Oak."