Tufts-NEMC lures Beth Israel doctors

Tufts-New England Medical Center, which has been struggling with financial losses and defecting doctors, has lured more than half of the neurosurgeons at competitor Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The recruitment allows Tufts-NEMC to double its own neurosurgery department.

Dr. Julian Wu, chief of Beth Israel Deaconess's neurosurgery division, said that he and Drs. Adel Malek and Simcha Weller will move to Tufts-NEMC on July 1, because the hospital is willing to put more focus and resources on their specialty.

Tufts-NEMC chief executive Ellen Zane said that among other promises, the hospital has agreed to develop a neurosciences institute that will include ''investing resources, and developing new areas of expertise and buying certain equipment."

Neither Zane nor Wu would be more specific about the amount of money Tufts-NEMC will invest. But both sides were pleased with the plan.

''When we talked to NEMC and Ellen Zane, they clearly had a new vision and strategy to develop neurosurgery and neuroscience and we liked it," Wu said. ''What we liked about this situation is that the hospital wants to be a strong partner in this relationship."

The hirings are a lift for Zane, who is trying to turn around the hospital's finances and recently dealt with the defection of a large number of pediatric gastroenterologists. Massachusetts General Hospital hired away six doctors from the pediatric gastroenterology unit of Tufts-NEMC's Floating Hospital for Children, including the well-known head of the department, Dr. Aubrey J. Katz, and three others in training. One of the doctors, Alex Flores, since has decided to stay at Tufts-NEMC as the chief of the pediatric gastroenterology division.

Last summer Zane initiated discussions between the Floating, which has been losing money and patients, and Children's Hospital that could lead to a partnership or merger. Children's Hospital is financially strong and so overflowing with patients that it turns some away. But those talks, while still intensive, have been proceeding slowly.

Zane said Tufts-NEMC, which lost $54 million over the past two fiscal years, is starting to show signs of improvement. The hospital is reporting a $5 million operating profit 5 months into this fiscal year.

Beth Israel Deaconess was once in a similar position, losing more than $280 million in the years following the merger of Beth Israel Hospital and New England Deaconess Medical Center. The Harvard teaching hospital has since turned around its finances and a large part of its success has been in surgery.

In fall 2001, the hospital hired a new surgery chief and agreed to give him more than $20 million to recruit and pay new surgeons; the hospital had lost at least 40 in the aftermath of the merger. The new chief, Dr. Josef Fischer, has recruited surgeons at an almost unheard-of clip: 29 in three years.

Fischer said of the neurosurgeons who are leaving that ''we got outbid," but Wu said their actual salaries will be the same at Tufts-NEMC when they start July 1. Neurosurgeons generally earn between $250,000 and $500,000 depending on experience.

Fischer said he plans to recruit at least two new neurosurgeons by July 1. Beth Israel Deaconess's five neurosurgeons operate on 700 to 800 patients a year.

Beth Israel Deaconess is developing special centers in transplant surgery, heart surgery, and other surgical specialties but not currently in neurosurgery.

Liz Kowalczyk can be reached at kowalczyk@globe.com.