Doctor groups compete at MWH

Mary Washington Hospital recently ended its contract with the Fredericks-burg Hospitalist Group and signed instead with another company, HMG, to provide hospitalist services. Yet some doctors with Fredericksburg Hospitalist Group chose to stay and compete with HMG rather than depart the hospital. As a result, Mary Washington is in the unusual position of having competing hospitalist groups in the building, one the "official" group under contract, and the other independent. Both groups have courted community doctors, hoping to care for their patients. And the hospital recently asked doctors to choose one or the other.