\u201cWith Lourdes being the one outlier, there was a desire for consistency across the entire enterprise to move to the other provider at all seven locations,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cThat\u2019s what motivated that change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Virtua Health declined further comment on the contract and staffing changes. TeamHealth also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n
The Inquirer spoke to three Lourdes emergency department physicians who weren\u2019t offered new contracts, several physician assistants and doctors who chose not to accept the new contract, multiple current employees, two former nurses, two paramedics, and several patients treated by Sacchetti and his team.<\/p>\n
Virtua\u2019s chief operating officer told Smith, the former medical director, that the contract change was \u201cintended to provide greater consistency and economies of scale,\u201d according to an email reviewed by The Inquirer.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not unusual for community health systems like Virtua to use outside vendors to staff their emergency departments, and having more than one staffing company would add to the cost. Virtua\u2019s main vendor, TeamHealth, is the largest in the nation<\/a>, according to a recent report by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we experienced happens more than just at Lourdes. It happens everywhere around the country,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBut the work we do, you can\u2019t compare that to any other business. You\u2019re dealing with humans and human lives. I hope physicians and mid-levels have more to say about how we practice medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n Turning it down<\/p>\n Smith, Lourdes\u2019 former medical director, immigrated to the U.S. decades ago from Poland to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. At home, women weren\u2019t expected to have a professional life, she said, so she pushed to attend medical school in South Jersey.<\/p>\n She discovered Lourdes during her rotations and hoped for a job there.<\/p>\n Her dream came true in 2007, after an interview with Sacchetti. <\/p>\n Smith, now 50, spent years caring for patients as an emergency physician, and in 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sacchetti appointed her medical director.<\/p>\n TeamHealth representatives called the trio earlier this year and said they couldn\u2019t stay at Virtua Lourdes, Smith said. They were told they could be moved to another Virtua location, but all three declined. When Smith asked to be stripped of her leadership title to stay at Lourdes as a doctor, she said she was told no.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to just be tossed around to another institution of their choice,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI was going to make that choice.\u201d<\/p>\n The rest of the emergency team, 21 doctors and APPs, were offered new contracts by TeamHealth, according to Smith, but only one person chose to stay, and a few more will work only on an as-needed basis.<\/p>\n Three employees who didn\u2019t accept the new contract said the ER is losing decades of institutional knowledge.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had over 100 years experience that they just let go,\u201d one former physician assistant said, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution.<\/p>\n Several staff members, including a former doctor and multiple physician assistants, said the new contracts offered them wages 20% to 30% lower than they were making before.<\/p>\n But aside from the proposed pay cut, past and present Lourdes employees said changing the ER\u2019s leadership team would\u2019ve made it difficult to stay.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people, no matter what they were offering \u2014 it could\u2019ve been double what they were making \u2014 they would still turn it down,\u201d said another physician assistant, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution.<\/p>\n Despite the staff changes, the Virtua spokesperson said the emergency department \u201cis fully prepared and able to support the needs of the community through the transition to TeamHealth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Too stubborn to be done yet\u2019<\/p>\n Sacchetti has spent decades working fast-paced days as an emergency room physician at Lourdes, writing articles and textbook chapters, giving lectures, volunteering at the Cherry Hill<\/a> Free Clinic, and uploading what he learns to YouTube. He does podcasts with the main medical consultant from The Pitt and submits example cases to the show every year. His cases made it on TV both seasons.<\/p>\n He\u2019s not ready to retire.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the word \u2018retirement\u2019 is in this article, he\u2019s going to lose his mind,\u201d said Jessica Aitken, a nurse who has worked with Sacchetti for more than 20 years. \u201cHe\u2019s too stubborn to be done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Aitken, who has worked at Lourdes since she graduated nursing school, decided to stay at the hospital despite recent leadership changes. Sacchetti taught her to stay prepared, to be a team player, and to cry away from patients. She was among the staffers who called him Dad.<\/p>\n
![\"Inquirer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/I_circle_black.png\")
<\/p>\n