Des Moines, Iowa-based MercyOne is ending its longtime partnership with Medical Center Anesthesiologists and will transition to a new anesthesia services provider, Vituity, effective May 31.
In a statement to local news outlets, MercyOne attributed the change to unresolved financial and operational disagreements with Medical Center Anesthesiologists, known as MCA.
“In March, Medical Center Anesthesiologists contacted MercyOne providing 180-day termination of their contract,” MercyOne said in a statement to NBC affiliate WHO13. “To keep our partnership in place, MCA required MercyOne to provide more than double our financial support, forcing us to prudently request proposals from other organizations. Additionally, MCA was unwilling to chart patient status information during surgery using downtime procedures until MercyOne transitions to new technology for approximately six weeks.”
MercyOne will move to Epic TogetherCare on May 31. Its parent company, Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health, has been transitioning all of its hospitals to Epic as part of a systemwide EHR standardization effort.
MercyOne’s new agreement with Vituity is set to take effect the same day the contract with MCA will end, meaning there will be no disruptions to patient care, a spokesperson for the health system told the Des Moines Register. The system said it hopes to retain current anesthesia providers within the new model.
