When nine Nebraska Heart Institute cardiologists announced in June 2018 that they were leaving to form their own practice, the split was described as amicable.
Both the doctors and officials from CHI Health said members of the new practice, Pioneer Heart Institute, would continue to be able to do procedures at both CHI Health Nebraska Heart and CHI Health St. Elizabeth.
"These providers will continue to work at CHI Health Nebraska Heart ... as our long-term strategic partners," President Derek Vance said in a statement at the time. "For generations we have worked collaboratively with both employed and independent physicians to provide excellent patient care and outcomes. That will not change."
But that now has changed.Â
As of Wednesday, Pioneer Heart Institute doctors lost their ability to do procedures at CHI Health Nebraska Heart.
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Steve Tyndall, medical director at CHI Health Nebraska Heart, which used to be known as the Nebraska Heart Hospital, said in a statement that the hospital entered into an exclusive agreement with its own physicians for cardiac services and procedures done at the hospital.
"Since the hospital’s inception in 2003, Nebraska Heart has operated under an exclusivity arrangement such as this, with the exception of the last 18 months," Tyndall said. "NHH has made the decision to return to its prior model."
He said that Pioneer Heart physicians still will be able to admit patients to and see patients in the hospital.
Pioneer Heart CEO Thomas Burnell said the decision was disappointing, especially considering the "long-standing working relationship between the physicians of Pioneer Heart and the Nebraska Heart Hospital."
"As a matter of fact, many of the physicians of Pioneer Heart were founders of Nebraska Heart, so a decision like this that affects continuity of patient care is especially difficult to understand," he said in an email.
Burnell said Pioneer Heart has developed "several solutions" to give patients choices, but he did not provide details.