My guess is there is a whole other side to this story that has not been talked about - what led the hospital to this point that they decided to move the anesthesia contract to a private company?
I'll be the first to say I thought the original offer presented to the CRNA's left much to be desired as far as details. I wouldn't sign a contract either without knowing what I was agreeing to, so from that standpoint, I totally agree with them. But, by their own admission, they pretty much had free rein on the schedule and received a ton of overtime. Anesthesia, whether provided by hospitals or by a private group/management company, is still a business. Even non-profits can't lose money indefinitely. Somebody stepped up and offered the hospital an alternative that saved them money. Whether that's a good move long term or not remains to be seen, but by all accounts, everything has been running fine at these two hospitals since the new group took over. I have no idea if any of the "Michigan68" ended up working with the new group, but if they had no alternative employment options, it would not surprise me if some changed their minds at the last minute and went to work with the new group - they had that option available to them till the last day.
For better or worse, and I hope it's not worse since my group was just acquired by a management company, this is the direction anesthesia is headed, at least until bundled payments to the hospitals becomes reality and the hospital controls who gets what piece of the pie for the whole hospitalization. I will thankfully be retired by that point.
