Via Christi strikes deal for ER staffing services

The Via Christi Health physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners who work in the system’s three Wichita emergency rooms will soon be working with a new physician-owned practice.

The Catholic health care provider said it will begin working with California-based CEP America on June 15 to provide physician and midlevel practitioner staffing at its emergency rooms at Via Christi Hospital St. Francis, Via Christi Hospital St. Joseph and Via Christi Hospital St. Teresa.

Those staff members, who currently work under the auspices of Via Christi, will now work with CEP. Via Christi’s ER staff includes more than 25 physicians and 33 physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

Darrell Youngman, Via Christi chief hospital medical officer, said the agreement with CEP was made largely because of the difficulty of recruiting ER physicians to Wichita.

“We feel like having a national reach with CEP will help us with getting applicants to Wichita to help out,” Youngman said. “It’s just difficult, as it stands, to get people to come here.”

Youngman said he thinks most of Via Christi’s ER physicians will choose to move over to CEP.

“It’s a change, and they have to evaluate everything,” he said. “I believe their initial impression has been favorable.”

The ER doctors also will be able to own stock in CEP through a “progressive partnership track,” much like doctors do in a traditional physician group practice, he said.

“Our guys will have that opportunity from the very beginning,” Youngman said.

CEP is a 40-year-old physician-owned company that operates in more than 140 locations across the U.S.

Youngman said he expects the CEP agreement will be beneficial in other ways, including improved efficiency in running the ERs and exposure to the latest techniques in emergency medicine.

“I think that’s a tremendous advantage,” he said.

In September, the Emergency Services Professional Association, a private physicians group that staffed Wesley Medical Center’s emergency room, agreed to work with EmCare, a national firm that provides ER and other physicians. A Wesley official noted at the time of the announcement that the agreement was expected to improve recruiting as well as efficiency within the ER.

This story was originally published March 24, 2015 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Via Christi strikes deal for ER staffing services."