The loss of the anesthesia contract by the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine to a private vendor might have been only one of the sore points in an uneasy relationship between Texas Tech and University Medical Center, according to emails obtained under the Texas Public Information Act.

In February, the UMC board voted 5-2 to award its contract for anesthesia services to Somnia, which submitted a $7.5 million bid, much lower than the Texas Tech bid of $11.2 million.

Last week, UMC's CEO Jim Valenti said UMC and Somnia were negotiating some of the last-minute details before signing the contract. A copy of the final contract was not available as of late Friday.

Somnia deferred questions about its contract to UMC officials.

Internal emails by employees of Texas Tech alleged that Somnia's final contract figure may end up closer to the Texas Tech bid of $11.2 million, once all the doctor and nursing staffing is factored in.

Financial aspects about the competing anesthesia contract proposals were discussed in a Jan. 31 internal email to Dr. John Wasnick, interim chairman of the anesthesiology department, and were copied to Dr. Jose Manuel de la Rosa, Texas Tech regional dean and founding dean of the medical school.

"So, basically what I take from this is that their vastly superior proposal in fact did not address the staffing demands of the RFP (request for proposal) we were presented," Wasnick said in his email, referring to Somnia's $7.5 million bid. Wasnick was interim dean of the anesthesiology department.

Wasnick was referencing an email attachment for Texas Tech Regent L. Rick Francis that said, "Based on our analysis, the difference in price between (the medical school's) bid and the agencies' (Somnia's) bid is less than $100,0000 when all hours are added in."

In an interview, Valenti disagreed with Wasnick's conclusion, saying the Texas Tech bid was for $14.2 million, minus the billing collections, which leaves the bid at about $11.2 million.

"I wished that Texas Tech had submitted a more competitive bid," Valenti said.

More here:

Emails hint at uneasy ties between Texas Tech and UMC