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University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center was one of many area hospitals with staff members affected by last week's executive order on immigration. The hospital's 200 medical residents who are not U.S. citizens are anxious about the implications of the order, including those who don't live in the seven countries affected, said hospital staff. Other area hospitals had staff and patients caught up in the chaos over the weekend.
(Plain Dealer Staff)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the wake of President Trump's executive order on immigration, area hospitals are scrambling to assist and reassure medical staff without citizenship and foreign patients scheduled for treatment.
Some are also speaking out on moral grounds against the order.
St. Vincent Charity Hospital said the order "sends a message of intolerance" in direct conflict with the hospital's faith-based Catholic mission.
"We strongly believe at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center that God has created all people equal," the hospital said in a statement. "God loves us all, forgives us all, blesses us all. Our roots in our faith and our belief in our country calls us to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and bring spiritual care to all in need."
St. Vincent's 67 resident doctors come from countries including Albania, Egypt, Ghana, United Arab Emirates, Iran, India, Jordan, Malawi, Pakistan and Syria.
At University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, 200 of the health system's 942 resident doctors are non-U.S. citizens, said Dr. Susan Nedorost, UH's director of graduate medical education.
The graduate medical education program informally cautioned these visa-holders in November about the potential dangers of traveling after Donald Trump's election, she said.
None of UH's residents was caught up in the travel problems caused by the executive order Friday, including those who are from the seven countries "of particular concern."
One UH doctor in training was traveling over the weekend but made it safely to the United States, Nedorost said.
A Cleveland Clinic internal medicine resident, Dr. Suha Abushamma, was detained and forced to return to Saudi Arabia on Friday because her Visa was issued in Sudan.
Abushamma thanked supporters Monday in a statement issued by the hospital system: "Although this has been a difficult experience, I am grateful to be safe with my family in Saudi Arabia. Please know that I am deeply committed to my medical career and to helping patients at Cleveland Clinic."
The Clinic said Monday it is doing its best to help Abushamma and other Clinic doctors affected by the immigration order. A spokeswoman could not say, though, if Clinic medical residents were counseled before Friday about the potential dangers of traveling after the election.
The Clinic also said it will hold its previously scheduled annual fundraiser in February at Mar-a-Lago, the Trump-owned Florida resort. But, Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said the Clinic is not committed to holding the event there in the future.
"We're receiving feedback from members of the community and we want to be responsive to that," she said Monday.
The MetroHealth System, through a spokeswoman, said the hospital does not have anyone traveling outside the United States at the moment who might be affected by the executive order. The health system declined further comment.
UH residents have asked the administration to use their monthly residency forum, which meets this week, to talk about the situation.
Many are anxious, Nedorost said.
"Even if they are not from one of the seven affected countries, there's certainly some emotional response and anxiety from our residents who hold visas," she said.
Dr. Thomas Nasca, CEO of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, told members of the graduate medical education community in a letter Monday to "pay particular attention to the well-being" of residents from other countries.
"Those with family outside the United States may be particularly concerned," Nasca wrote. "These physicians may require heightened support, and more overt efforts to demonstrate that support."
Nedorost hesitated to speculate about how the immigration order might impact graduate medical education more broadly, but said that "diversity is part of our [UH's] institutional mission."
"Right now we expect everyone to be very cautious," she said.
St. Vincent, in its statement, was more bold:
"Our program attracts students from across the globe. We have prided ourselves on being able to attract the very best candidates from all faiths. However, as [resident] Match Day approaches on March 17, 2017, we may be forced to turn away our best candidates for fear that their citizenship will be an obstacle. This is detrimental to both the advancement of medicine and the care of our patients. And it is an affront to our faith."