Tulsa Doctor Changes

A large group of Tulsa doctors is jumping ship to a different hospital. And many patients may be left behind. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Steve Berg has more on the tug of war between hospitals. We

Wednesday, September 13th 2006, 10:06 am

By: News On 6

A large group of Tulsa doctors is jumping ship to a different hospital. And many patients may be left behind.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg has more on the tug of war between hospitals. We say that because a lot of the doctors came to Southcrest Hospital from St. John's Hospital. And that's made it a touchy subject.

Greg Richardson says he got a letter a couple days ago from the Omni Medical Group, which is run by St. John's Hospital, that his doctor didn't work there anymore. "It was a rather abrupt letter, gone, effective immediately, no contact information."

He said after a couple of phone calls, he found out his doctor had switched to Southcrest. Southcrest has created a new Medical group with 31 doctors, several of whom came from St. John's Omni Group clinic at 81st and Memorial, which is where Richardson's doctor worked. He says he'll follow his doctor over to Southcrest, at least he thinks he can. "We think, we think, as far as we know. Some of those details are still being worked out between our insurance company and this new medical group."

Some patients got letters from their insurance that said they would have to find a new doctor, because apparently the insurance wouldn't cover their doctor at Southcrest. That makes it a touchier subject for doctors.

The News on 6 asked some of the doctors to do interviews with us, but they declined. Patients we talked to are disgruntled. "Somebody in my family had an appointment. This week or next and we're suddenly left kind of going what do we do now and it was a pretty important appointment for what was being addressed at that time."

St. John hasn't told the News on 6 how many doctors they lost to Southcrest. We counted at least 8. However, St. John sent us a statement saying they're fully staffed and that they are accepting new patients.