VALDOSTA — South Georgia Medical Center has formed a task force to monitor its cardiology services after two local doctors questioned the hospital’s decisions at a Wednesday meeting.

One of two doctors who approached SGMC’s governing body to voice concerns about the recent hiring of three cardiologists was named to sit on the task force.

Dr. Sid Staton and Dr. William “Doug” Luke practice at SGMC in conjunction with their private practice at South Georgia Medical Associates, Staton said at the meeting. Staton alleged the hospital excluded the two of them from its hiring process for the hospital’s new cardiology program.

SGMC recruited Dr. Cary Rose, Dr. Robert “Darrel” Collins and Dr. Michael Anigbogu to the run the new program. 

Since last August, SGMC has been working with members of the medical staff to add new cardiologists after three independent practitioners announced they were leaving the community. 

Staton said he and Luke are concerned with the hospital’s actions and the direction it is going. He asked for the hospital to come up with a task force to better involve the intimate players.

“This has gotten out of hand in the past three weeks,” Staton said. “I am talking about safety and quality of care.”

Staton suggested he and Luke never had an opportunity to meet with any of the new doctors, despite the hospital saying they were going to work together. 

“We all had our picture in the paper, a nice little article about how we were all going to work together to get to our goal of having enough cardiologists to provide the care that this community needs,” Staton said. “After that point, we have not been involved. We were told our input was not needed.” 

Staton said the two of them know what it takes to be a cardiologist for SGMC and implied the three new hires do not fit those needs. 

The hospital responded to Staton by stating it has done its best to communicate with all parties involved, including him and Luke. 

At the end of the hospital authority meeting, after a more than two-hour long executive session, the authority announced it was forming a Cardiology Services Task Force. 

The board requested Luke be a part of the task force.

“As we said from the beginning, our objective is to do what is best for this community,” said C. Ross Berry, SGMC chief executive officer. “We have accomplished what we said we would do. We have brought cardiologists to this community without service line disruption.”

Regarding quality, SGMC stated it has both internal and external programs to monitor quality. 

“Coincidentally, in December, our cardiology service was reviewed by an external third party for quality and met all standards of care,” the hospital said in a prepared statement. 

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256