Steve is still a bit worked up here.
APPLETON - Seven health care workers will be able to start their new jobs at Ascension St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton after a judge dismissed a temporary restraining order that was barring them from doing so at the request of their former employer, ThedaCare.
Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis ruled that ThedaCare's arguments were not enough to uphold the injunction.
McGinnis said he signed the initial restraining order Friday because of the gravity of the situation that ThedaCare laid out in their complaint. ThedaCare argued the region would be in danger of not having health care for severely injured patients or people who had suffered strokes if the seven employees moved to Ascension for their Monday start date.
But after Monday's hearing, McGinnis said ThedaCare could rely on alternate staffing solutions it already is pursuing to preserve care, including cross-training employees who do similar jobs at ThedaCare's Appleton hospital. The seven employees had been working at ThedaCare's Neenah hospital.
The community does not benefit if the seven employees do not work anywhere, McGinnis said, pointing to earlier testimony from several of them that they would not return to ThedaCare even if the injunction was upheld. McGinnis called the employees "collateral damage" in a dispute between two large corporations.
"They don't want to be here (in court). Somehow we've put them here," he said.
The broader case, in which ThedaCare argues that Ascension inappropriately group-recruited these employees, will go forward in court.
ThedaCare lawyers last Thursday asked the court to temporarily stop seven of its employees from taking new jobs at Ascension St. Elizabeth Hospital. The employees are part of an 11-member interventional radiology and cardiovascular team.
Lawyers for ThedaCare argued that Ascension's taking of the majority of their team at the same time would pose a public health threat to the region, and that patients may now have to be diverted hours away for high-level stroke and trauma care.
Ascension lawyers said the employees applied for and received better offers from their hospital, gave ThedaCare a chance to match it weeks before the employees were set to leave, and ThedaCare chose not to do so.
https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/2022/01/24/thedacare-ascension-court-over-health-care-worker-employment/6635683001/
