St. Peter's Reaffirms Commitment to Patients and Access to Cardiovascular Care

While we don't believe legal disputes should be played out in the media, misleading and inaccurate claims require correction.

In keeping with our longstanding partnership across the communities we serve, St. Peter's offered an approach that would have allowed cardiology services to continue at Ellis. Ellis rejected that offer. We were also disappointed to learn the extent of the efforts made to undermine our good faith attempts to reach a solution. Two physician leaders in positions of trust broke that trust by providing confidential business information, including confidential employment and compensation information of their fellow physicians, to Ellis leadership for recruitment purposes. Such conduct could not go unaddressed; we have an obligation to protect our business and employee information.

For patients, nothing has changed. They should continue seeing their physicians and following their current care plans. We have a strong cardiovascular program in place and remain focused on ensuring patients have access to high-quality cardiovascular care close to where they live and work. We understand the importance of the relationship between patients and their physicians and have no intention of disrupting those relationships. While patients' care locations may change after December based on decisions made by Ellis Medicine, we will support patients throughout the process and make it easy for those who wish to transfer their records.

We know that competition for physicians is real and rebuilding will take time. While we continue to grow our cardiovascular team, we are committed to doing so with integrity and in a manner consistent with our values. At the same time, we strongly believe a collaborative solution is in the best interest of the patients and communities we serve.

Steven Hanks, MD, MMM, FACP, FFSMB
President & CEO
St. Peter’s Health Partners