Moonlighting Cook County docs raise questions

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

For the emergency-medicine chief at Cook County-owned Provident Hospital, that full-time job isn't enough.

Dr. Pierre Wakim also owns Emergency Room Care Providers, a physician-staffing firm that has a $900,000 contract to run Holy Cross Hospital's emergency room on the South Side, and Score Tennis & Fitness Center in Countryside.

How does he manage? Wakim says his wife and business partner, Dr. Karla Wakim, runs the tennis club and, with a consultant, handles staffing decisions at Holy Cross -- while also keeping up a private practice in Willowbrook.

To earn his $304,000-a-year county salary, Wakim figures he puts in "40 to 60 hours per week'' at Provident.

The Cook County Health and Hospital System takes his word for that. County doctors are required to "swipe in" to prove they showed up for work -- but they don't have to swipe out.