Don't try to reach or see the doctors at Hermitage Surgical Associates, Inc. Nobody's been there this week and won't be until Thursday.

The practice of Dr. Gene A. Marcelli, Dr. Ravi K. Sachdeva and Dr. Carlos A. Valladares at 2151 Shenango Valley Freeway is closed this week as part of statewide and countywide efforts to protest the high cost of malpractice insurance in Pennsylvania.

Tuesday, a message on the practice's answering machine said: "You've reached the Hermitage Surgical Associates office of Drs. Marcelli, Sachdeva and Valladeras. Our office is closed until Thursday, May 1 at 9 a.m. while the doctors attend meetings regarding the malpractice crisis in the state of Pennsylvania. If this is an emergency, please contact the emergency room at Sharon Regional Health System at (724) 983-3870 for the physician on call. Hermitage Surgical Associates asks for your understanding and support."

Doctors all over Mercer County and the state are asking Pennsylvanians for their understanding and support for a protest dubbed "Code Blue" by the Pennsylvania Medical Society that began Monday. It's scheduled to conclude May 6.

"We wanted to make a statement, we wanted to show solidarity and we wanted to make patients aware that there is a definite crisis," Sachdeva said. "And before we know it, a lot of doctors are going to leave Pennsylvania or retire if we can't get the costs under control."

Although his office was closed, Sachdeva said he was in the operating room at Sharon Regional for 10 hours Tuesday to perform surgery on three patients.

"Emergency care is not affected at all," he said. "But the office is closed, the patients are aware of why the office is closed and that we do support the Code Blue plan."

Doctors say without some remedy from the state government, more physicians will be forced to leave Pennsylvania or stop performing high-risk procedures. Doctors are seeking three major changes to help ease the crisis: a $250,000 cap on jury awards for pain and suffering, a reduction in fees that lawyers may charge suing patients, and the elimination of the state's medical malpractice fund, which they say adds thousands to doctors' insurance bills, an Associated Press story said Tuesday.

It was not clear how many of Pennsylvania's 46,000 doctors have closed their offices, but Mercer County Medical Society President Dr. Patrick Shaughnessy said he expected about 25 percent of the county's 135-member medical society to close their offices from one day to a week.

"We feel like we need to make a statement, but we're not really putting on a full-court press in terms of what we're doing here in Mercer County," said Shaughnessy, whose office is in Hermitage.

Shaughnessy said about a half-dozen local doctors are planning to attend rallies in State College and Harrisburg during "Code Blue" week. Their offices will be closed on those days, he said.

"Several surgeons" and a "couple of orthopedists" will also be closing their offices on "isolated days" to support the protest, Shaughnessy said.

"Everybody has arranged emergency coverage," Shaughnessy said. "... Some people will be inconvenienced -- they may have to go to the emergency room instead of being able to see their doctor at an office -- but overall I don't think care is going to suffer significantly."

Ed Newmeyer, Sharon Regional Health System's director of marketing and community relations, said Tuesday the hospital was "functioning normally."

"We're not expecting any disruptions," he said. "While the volume in our emergency care center seemed heavy Monday, I'm not sure if that was attributable to the Code Blue situation."

John Lewis, chief executive officer at United Community Hospital, said the Pine Township hospital was also not experiencing any problems stemming from doctors being involved in Code Blue protests.

"There's really been no disruptions of services," Lewis said. "Physicians are responding to our emergency rooms and inpatient needs."

An official from UPMC Horizon in Farrell and Greenville did not return a call, but hospital administrators earlier had sent letters to doctors reminding them they needed to have appropriate coverage for patients this week.

The Mercer County Medical Society recently placed ads in The Herald and the Record-Argus of Greenville and plans to run another one in today's Allied News in Grove City in hopes of educating the public on the seriousness of the crisis and asking patients to take action on behalf of physicians, medical society president-elect Dr. James Perry said more than a week ago.

The society's message "to patients is that their ability to continue to receive affordable, timely care is in jeopardy," said Perry, an internist with Greenville Medical Center.

You can e-mail Herald Political Writer Jeff Greenburg at jgreenburg@sharonherald.com.

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