Friday, August 28, 2009

Former residents suing hospitals


There are two recent stories that may be interesting to you if you're going through residency, or if you're recently survived the toils of residency: (these are snippets from the actual stories)
  1. Dr. Claudine Nigro is suing Dr. Francis X. Dennehy of Front Royal for breach of contract, defamation and emotional distress, according to papers filed Aug. 3 in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg. The Appalachian Osteopathic Postgraduate Training Institute, Warren Memorial Hospital, Valley Health System and Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College of Virginia also are named as defendants in the suit. The suit claims that all defendants unlawfully refused to allow Nigro to progress to the residency program's second year. Read about this case here.
  2. A former surgical resident (Dr. Oscar K. Serrano) is suing the Johns Hopkins Hospital for $24 million, alleging he was unlawfully fired and then defamed after he accused officials of trying to cover up problems with the residency program. Serrano is also suing Dr. Pamela A. Lipsett, director of the general surgery residency program, and Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag, chief of surgery, among other individuals. Serrano’s superiors told their colleagues and other hospitals Serrano was let go because of mental health problems, a charge denied in Serrano’s lawsuit and by his lawyer. Serrano, 30, was in the third year of his eight-year joint general surgery residency and Ph.D. program at Hopkins when he was fired. Read about this case here.
I don't know any of the people involved in these cases, but I think it's very unfortunate to see these types of things happening in the medical field. I'll be curious to see how things turn out for all the parties. Perhaps they will end up pursuing non-clinical physician careers. I could probably help them with that.

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