PARK CITY -- A group of doctors was to meet a 5 p.m. deadline Tuesday by making a counteroffer to buy back their practice in an effort to resolve a dispute with the University of Utah Health Network.
UUHN has offered to sell the Park City Family Health and Emergency Center to the nine physicians for $1.88 million after a strong public outcry by longtime patients of the doctors, who feel they're being forced out of the practice.A previous deadline of March 21 was pushed back by UUHN after the doctors said a week's time was too short to organize a repurchase plan for the clinic, which the doctors sold to the university five years ago.
"We think today's deadline still puts us under enormous pressure, considering they took 10 months to buy the clinic in the first place," said Dr. Robert Winn, one of the original doctors who started at the clinic 22 years ago. "You couldn't buy a business in a week. It just can't be done. And we're doing this now without all the information we need and without our financial consultant in town.
"But we're hopeful by making an offer they'll either accept the bid or continue to negotiate," said Winn, whose group must put up a non-refundable deposit of $250,000 as part of the negotiations.
Paul Sincock, a former Park City councilman who heads Utah Business Consultants and is the doctors' financial adviser, is on a vacation he planned six months ago, Winn said.
"His not being here makes it tougher, but we want to try to move forward because the best outcome would be to buy back the clinic and return our full attention to the patients we've been treating for 20 years," said Winn, whose contract with UUHN, like those of the other doctors, ends in July.
The university shares the doctors' goal of reacquiring the clinic, according to spokesman Fred Esplin.
"From the reaction in the community, we do feel the best option is to sell the practice to them. That's what everyone has been working for -- certainly from the university's perspective," Esplin said.
"We understand the physicians' point about the time, and in a perfect world we'd like to see them get all they think they need. But it is absolutely necessary to be ready to contract with other health-care professionals to staff the clinic if it is not reacquired by the Park City doctors," Esplin said.
"We feel like we've been trying to go the extra mile (by resetting the deadline) to make this happen, but there is a point past which you can't go. We can't leave the people of Park City high and dry without the health care they need and should have."
A vocal segment of Parkites has made it clear the health care they want revolves around the doctors they may stand to lose.
Gene Moser, head of Rally Around the Docs, which last month organized a packed meeting at the Park City Library, said the group has collected 541 signatures on two petitions, representing 1,410 patients backing the doctors.
"We're still vitally interested in seeing them stay," Moser said.
On another front, the university has not responded legally to a complaint seeking two declaratory judgments filed on behalf of the doctors March 27 in the Utah 3rd District Court of Judge Robert Hilder in Coalville.
Martha Amundsen, of the law firm Heinzelman and Amundsen of Salt Lake City, said one basis of the lawsuit is that the university has breached the physicians' contracts, voiding a non-compete clause that required the doctors not to practice in Summit or Wasatch Counties for two years after their contracts expired.
"The doctors do believe repurchasing the clinic is the best result. The lawsuit has been filed should that best result not take place, and we feel we have a strong case on numerous points where the university has breached the agreements with the doctors," Amundsen said.
"That the physicians would choose to file this suit at this time is very surprising and disappointing," Esplin said. "It's certainly not what you'd hope for when you're in discussions about the sale of the clinic."
"We feel badly about the timing of the lawsuit too," said Winn. "But we did it a time when we didn't feel like we had any real dialogue going with them. We found it surprising and disappointing when we didn't have jobs."