DOCS: Why are good ones gone?

Kootenai Health has a “new vision.” No one can actually explain what it is but it definitely is not in the best interest of cancer patients.

Oncologists here work for the hospital and during the last year or so four have had their contracts terminated. Suddenly with almost no warning, the doctors are just gone and the patients don’t receive any explanation as to why. There is the implication they left on their own, but that isn’t true; they were terminated without explanation other than “we have a new vision.”

These are highly respected doctors and specialists in their field. Cancer patients have a very close relationship with their doctor, often for several years, and the same is true of the doctors to their patients. There can be a lot of history as treatments change over time as the cancer progresses. This is causing huge stress for my wife, who has been in treatment for breast cancer for over seven years. She is losing her doctor and so have hundreds of other patients the past year. She received just 20 days notice that he is leaving.

It would be a good thing if the hospital administration would explain why they are doing this.

Doctors and patients, some with critical health issues, are being treated by administration like a product, not people. Why haven’t the patients ever been informed of this “new vision” that is having such a profound effect on them? Where is that heart they advertise on their signage?

ROBERT GUENTHER

Coeur d’Alene