Santa Clara Valley Medical Center allegedly harassed and forced four cardiologists out of their jobs for exposing patient safety issues that resulted in severe complications and even deaths, according to plaintiffs who are suing the San Jose, Calif., hospital, Mass Device reported.
Echocardiographer Geeta Singh and cardiothoracic surgeon Kai Ihnken, two of the physician defendants, said they had filed patient safety complaints for years but were ignored by hospital officials. When they took their complaints to county officials, the physicians alleged they were harassed, Mass Device noted.
After filing the lawsuit, Singh was moved to a satellite outpatient office, she said.
"The only thing they are allowing me to do is see outpatients. I have lost 90% of my previous job responsibilities. This is retaliation," she told heartwire.
Singh also said she was sexually harassed and filed complaints with Equal Opportunities at the hospital, although the department never investigated. However, she did receive a letter from the County Equal Opportunity Office acknowledging that the former chief of cardiology violated the county policy on sexual harassment, according to the article.
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center also is accused of using the peer review process to force the physicians out.
"It seems, at least at SCVMC, that when they want to get rid of an employee all they have to do is a sham peer HIPAA review," Singh told heartwire.
Ihnken's contract with the hospital was terminated in October 2010, that is, 7 months before it was due to expire.
"I can tell you that each and every patient-related safety issue that was reported was the subject of an investigation, both internally and by an outside entity that was specifically hired to look into those patient-related safety issues," said Gregory Sebastinelli, deputy county counsel for the County of San Jose who represents the defendants.
The Joint Commission in 2010 and 2011 put the medical center on "conditional accreditation" for six months, heartwire reported.
Recent state health department data, however, indicate that Santa Clara Valley Medical Center ranked higher than average in their medical or surgical critical care units with no central-line infections last year, the Bay Area News Group reported last week.
Even more, infection prevention manager Nancy Johnson said Santa Clara Valley Medical Center encourages employees to speak up if they see someone not following safety guidelines.
The lawsuit is scheduled to go to mediation at the end of February. If it is not settled, it will likely move to a jury trial.
For more information:
- here's the heartwire article
- read the Mass Device article
- here's the Bay Area News Group article
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Thank You Fierce Healthcare and Ms Cheung
2 comments:
Patients At Valley Medical Center Are Concerned After Contamination Scare
63 patients are waiting on test results to make sure they don't have HIV or Hepatitis B or C. A prob was used in the patients initial procedures and it was after that a doctor realized some fluid on the prob. The prob is covered during procedures but the cover may have had a hole. Doctors say the risk to any type of fluid is very small but safety of their patients is the most important. We spoke with a woman who went under a breast cancer procedure who was called back in for this testing. NBC Bay Area's George Kiriyama has the exclusive story.
08-17-2011
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (Santa Clara), California, agreed to pay $48,000 to resolve its liability for Civil Monetary Penalties under the patient dumping statute. The OIG alleged that Santa Clara failed to provide a medical screening examination or stabilizing treatment to a patient that presented to its emergency department (ED) after receiving a referral from a nearby urgent care facility which diagnosed him with severe abnormal hemoglobin results. It was suspected that the patient had some sort of internal bleeding. Upon arrival to Santa Clara's ED, the patient showed a nurse the referral papers and complained of dizziness, blurred vision, and fatigue. The patient was categorized as non-emergent and waited in the waiting room for seven hours. The patient expired in the ED.
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL (RE: PATIENT DUMPING)
http://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/enforcement/cmp/patient_dumping.asp
Thanks for sharing.....
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