Lutheran doctors walk out on meeting with CHS officials

A large group of doctors walked out on a meeting between Lutheran Health Network staff and their parent company Monday night.

The meeting came a few hours after Community Health Systems rejected a local physicians group’s $2.4-billion bid to buy the local hospital network, as an attempt to fix what some are calling a broken relationship.

Lutheran Medical Staff President Dr. James Cameron tells ABC 21 it’s going to be a tough road ahead.

“As this process moves forward, it’s going to be a trust-building process I’m sure from the medical staff back to the parent company and definitely from the parent company back to us.”

CHS reported a financial loss of $1.6-billion last year. Local employees say the company is using Lutheran’s profits to prop itself up, and not investing enough locally.