18 Boston Medical Center doctors were named to the Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. America’s Top Doctors list for 2008, but the success comes at a difficult time financially after December’s budget cuts.
The list was published in the December issue of Boston Magazine, around the time BMC President and CEO Elaine Ullian announced that BMC officials would be cutting 250 jobs in response to state budget cuts, which was announced Dec. 17.
Clinical Cardiology Director Ravin Davidoff, who was named to the list in 2007, said in an email that the recognition allows BMC to receive ‘visible acknowledgment’ for the quality of the doctors and the work they perform.
However, the job cuts mean the doctors will not be able to provide the same level of care to their ‘most needy and neglected patients,’ who can only afford health care with the help of Medicaid, Davidoff said. The state budget cuts that incited the BMC job cuts include Medicaid funding and will cost BMC $114 million.
‘Our doctors work with fewer resources than most other academic physicians, and the fact that the state does not recognize our mission and support BMC appropriately is a major frustration,’ he said. ‘If the state does not improve payment to us for caring for our patients, the mission of BMC will be compromised.’
Those on the Top Doctors list will not be affected directly by these job cuts because the cuts come from clinical and administrative support positions in sectors such as radiology, obstetrics, nursing, ophthalmology and interpreter services, BMC spokeswoman Gina DiGravio said.
‘ ‘None of the doctors on the list would be laid off,’ she said.
Although BMC faces changes in the future, Boston University School of Medicine neurology department chairman Carlos Kase, a 2008 Top Doctor, said he is adamant that the cuts will not affect the quality of care.
‘ ‘The cuts are going to have an overall impact, but it won’t necessarily impact the quality of care that is going to be maintained,’ he said.
The quality of care the 18 BMC doctors provide for their patients was an aspect Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. took into consideration the list was composed, Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. Vice President and Chief Strategy and Operating Officer William Liss-Levinson said.
Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. is a New York medical research company that works to pinpoint and compile a list of the best doctors, which is published in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston Magazines, to deliver the results.
‘Doctors across the country are invited to log into our website and nominate 25 other doctors from around the country, and nominate them to be either regionally or nationally outstanding,’ Liss-Levinson said.
BMC will not allow the job cuts to in any way adversely affect the care these Top Doctors provide, DiGarvio said.
‘ ‘It’s not going to change anything,’ DiGarvio said. ‘We’re going to do more work, with fewer people. This happens.’
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