A Wisconsin judge has lifted a temporary restraining order that prevented Ascension from hiring seven technicians and nurses previously employed at ThedaCare, an eight-hospital system that said losing the staff would impede its trauma victim care.
ThedaCare initially told a county circuit court judge that Ascension had recruited the majority of its interventional radiology and cardiovascular team and “set the stage for their simultaneous departure.”
The employees’ departure “would potentially force” trauma victims from ThedaCare’s Level II Trauma Center to travel further for emergency care, according to the health system. This could result in “irreparable harm” to patients whose conditions can deteriorate in minutes, it said.
Seeking time to find replacement staff and “avoid a public health calamity,” the system’s request was granted by the judge Jan. 21.
However, the order was lifted following a hearing Monday as the judge reportedly determined that ThedaCare could rely on cross-training other employees and other alternate staffing solutions. The seven employees were permitted to begin their new roles at Ascension on Tuesday.
“The issue has always been about protecting our community’s access to the highest level of trauma and stroke care,” Lynn Detterman, president of ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah and senior vice president of ThedaCare's south region, said in a statement following the decision. “We made significant efforts to try to work with Ascension Wisconsin to resolve the situation in a way that protects the community’s access to this critical care and honors the decision of the team members who decided to leave our organization.”
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In a brief filed in court Monday, Ascension described ThedaCare’s court filing as a “frantic, last-minute lawsuit” in which “ThedaCare attempts to convert its own poor management into a disruptive personal emergency for everyone—anyone—but itself.”
The larger system also noted that the same services ThedaCare said will be endangered are offered at Ascension’s St. Elizabeth Hospital less than seven miles away, albeit without “the fancy designation ThedaCare appears to view as a better use of funds than paying its workers."
Detterman also said the health system’s goal “was always to create a short-term orderly transition, not to force team members to continue working at ThedaCare.”
Still ongoing is a broader case brought by ThedaCare alleging Ascension had inappropriately “recruited” its employees.
In a statement filed Jan. 21, one of the seven former ThedaCare employees told the court that the employees had voluntarily chosen to apply to Ascension’s open positions after one team member informed the others of their higher-paid offer.
The testifying former employee also said the team had collectively approached ThedaCare management for a matching offer but were told that “the long term expense to ThedaCare was not worth the short term cost and that no counteroffer would be made,” according to court documents.