SCHENECTADY, NY (WRGB) \u2014 Two longtime cardiology patients at Ellis Hospital say they are worried and uncertain about their future access to care as Ellis Medicine and St. Peter\u2019s Health Partners battle in court over 27 cardiologists.<\/p>\n
Carol Phillips, a 12-year cardiology patient, said the situation has left her shaken. \u201cI\u2019m really devastated and sad,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n
Eugene Nachamkin, a 25-year cardiology patient, said he is anxious about the possibility of changes to his care. \u201cI\u2019m very nervous about this, I really like not to see a change,\u201d Nachamkin said.<\/p>\n
Both patients said they are alive today because of the decades of care they have received at Ellis Hospital. Phillips said the coordination between specialists has been critical to her treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour heart and lung work together so if I go in for one thing, both the doctors are there, at least one of the team,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That continuity of care is now in jeopardy after the 27 Cardiology Associates of Schenectady signed one-year noncompete agreements with St. Peter\u2019s Health Partners. Ellis claims the physicians were threatened to sign.<\/p>\n
Nachamkin said he is concerned about what it could mean for patients in Schenectady.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving a set of physicians out of Schenectady where there\u2019s no other group like that here, that\u2019s not taking care of the residents, that\u2019s not being compassionate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The contracts have sparked lawsuits from both hospital systems<\/a>, proposed legislation and involvement from the attorney general\u2019s office<\/a>. For patients like Phillips, the dispute has created a difficult decision between staying with her cardiologist or maintaining access to local procedures.<\/p>\n \u201cI would keep my cardiologist and hope that I didn\u2019t need any procedures done within the year before they can come back to Ellis. Oh my God, if I get sick like with my valve or something and I go to Ellis, my doctor\u2019s not there anymore,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n Nachamkin said he plans to attend a community conversation about the future of health care in Schenectady with Ellis CEO Paul Milton before deciding what to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to hear what he has to say, what plans he has and if he has alternatives if they do lose the case, what\u2019s going to happen with cardiologists for Ellis Hospital?\u201d Nachamkin said.<\/p>\n The town hall is scheduled for Thursday morning at 7:30 at the Schenectady DoubleTree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCHENECTADY, NY (WRGB) \u2014 Two longtime cardiology patients at Ellis Hospital say they are worried and uncertain about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-908289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}