All the Governor's Men

Shrock, a Stanford-trained physician and assistant professor at Nova Southeastern University, says Lwin's concession has driven away numerous physicians and destroyed any chance of building a thriving orthopedic department at the hospital. "There have been essentially no orthopedists who have come to Broward General and stayed other than myself and my partner," he says. "And the reason for that is they are excluded from the contract. It has been impossible for them to build a practice there. There is just no credibility."

"I'm not sure I'm going to be around when that hospital is finished," Shrock declares. "You lose patience. Sein Lwin takes precedence. We bring $4 [million] to $7 million in revenue, but the hospital has not done much to help us. We need young physicians to have access to this revenue and bring in patients and get busy. We need to open up [emergency room] calls to all doctors."

But Lwin's ER monopoly is just a symptom, Kapila says, of a larger disorder that is afflicting NBHD. "The district does not reward excellence in medicine; it does not reward excellence in patient care -- it rewards the political handshaking and the sucking up and the going for campaign contributions," the vice chief of surgery says. "And that eventually has to be to the detriment to the institution and the public. The mandate to find a cost-effective way to deliver the best possible care has been lost in the political shuffle of fundraising and contact-making."

The responsibility to change things at the district lies, of course, with the governor -- but it may take a grand jury to really make a difference.