To the Editor:

A number of patients of Dr. Michael Michotek are concerned and dismayed at the news that Dr. Michotek is considering retiring from his practice on the Vineyard, in which he visits his elder patients in their homes, taking 30 minutes or more to assess their health issues, giving thoughtful responses, all without the patients having to leave home, find parking, and find the doctor’s office in the corridors of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. 

We have discovered that as an “outside” physician, not having an office within the hospital walls, he is only allowed to see his patients, if they are admitted to the hospital, during regular visiting hours. This seems unacceptable, that as a licensed medical practitioner in Massachusetts, he is treated differently from “inside” doctors, and his patients, as a result, also are treated differently. A number of us, as patients of Dr. Mike, met with Claire Seguin, COO of MVH, on July 14 in a hospital conference room, and she stated that the “business model” on which the hospital runs has their hands tied, and they can only allow doctors employed by MVH to visit at any time. When asked who makes the policies on which MVH operates — Mass General Brigham or MVH — she stated that MVH makes its own, which does not appear to be accurate, considering the unique nature of Island living, especially in summer, when ferry tickets are both expensive and difficult to get when needing to go off for medical care.

The rural hospital system in Massachusetts seems to classify MVH as a critical access hospital (CAH), since it is located on this Island where other hospitals are not available. Yet if a patient’s PCP is not employed by the hospital, he or she may be treated differently from the patients of “inside” doctors. For example, when trying to make an appointment for a regular flu shot in the fall of 2020, I was told that I could not get it at the hospital, since my PCP was not employed there. (I then received the shot at a local pharmacy.) This would appear to make the kind of care a patient receives dependent on whether money is being brought in to MVH or not. Is this the kind of healthcare we want for the older population of this beautiful Island? I think and hope not.

 

Barbara Caseau
Vineyard Haven