JAMESTOWN — For Dr. Kevin Sharrett, switching medical affiliations after more than a decade, was all about getting better.
“It was an opportunity to improve,” he said June 19, a day after it was announced he and his partner physicians and nurse practitioners were leaving Premier and Jamestown Family Medicine and joining the Kettering Health Network.
“Change is difficult,” Sharrett, also the Greene County coroner, said. “It’s never easy. Yet, there’s never been an improvement made unless there’s been a change. After a considerable amount of consideration and prayer and pouring our hearts out with each other, we realized joining Kettering Health was an opportunity for us to build upon the practice we established … within a setting that is consistent with our faith. We felt that the difficulty of change in the long run would be worth it.”
It’s been somewhat difficult for Sharrett and his seven partner providers since they gave Premier the contractually required 90-day notice of change of network affiliation. Instead of finishing out their contract through Friday, Aug. 3, the physicians were asked by Premier to finish up their records and close out their charts, leaving the nurse practitioners without patients to see until Monday July 9 and the physicians without patients to see until Wednesday, Aug. 8.
In an attempt to make a smooth transition, Premier added two new doctors — Dr. Mark Williams and Dr. Nick Davis — to the Jamestown Family Medicine practice to take the place of the departed physicians.
“It just made more sense for us,” said Premier Physician Network President Diane Pleiman. “It’s more of a disruption to (let them stay) when you already have the physicians who are well established.”
She did express disappointment that the doctors left Premier but added the practice will move forward and continue to be a presence in the county.
“We understood it was a long-term commitment,” Pleiman said of the contract with Sharrett and the others. “We remain committed to the Jamestown and Xenia communities and the surrounding area. We have a long-term lease on the property in Jamestown. We intend to stay there in that building.”
Sharrett said he and his co-workers had no plans to stop seeing patients after announcing their move.
“Our expectation was to continue serving our patients throughout the entirety of that 90-days notice,” Sharrett said. “Unfortunately, we are not able to do that. We’re committed to honoring the terms of our agreement. We are committed to doing the right thing. This is not the way we would have done it. It is not our preference. Nonetheless, we are doing all that we can to make sure the patients get the care that they deserve and that they need. It was taken out of our hands. Our primary concern is always the patients.”
Sharrett said patients who wish to remain with his practice and need urgent or emergent care should go to a KHN urgent care or one of the network’s emergency rooms. If they don’t have an immediate need, and can wait, Sharrett said patients are welcome to call 937-675-2870 and make an appointment for July 9 or after. If patients need prescription refills, they will need to call the Jamestown Family Medicine practice, he said.
“We do not want patients to go without their medications or jeopardize their health because of this temporary situation,” Sharrett said.
The new practice, to be called Kettering Physician Network Primary Care — Jamestown will have offices in two locations: 4790 Cottonville Road in Jamestown and 50 N. Progress Drive in Xenia. The Jamestown location is the Greeneview School Board of Education offices right near the current Premier practice.
Due to non-compete clauses with their premier contracts, not all physicians will be at both locations, Sharrett said.
“These restrictions will not prohibit our group from providing services to Jamestown and Xenia,” he said. “Our plan is to provide services at the Jamestown location and at the Xenia location. That includes all of the providers.”
Premier, however, said that’s not the case
“All the doctors at the Jamestown Family Medicine practice are under non-competes with different terms, preventing them from being able to practice in the vicinity of the current Jamestown Family Medicine locations,” Pleiman said.
