Native heart specialist suing OH and a pair of physicians; claims defamation, interference with enterprise

Native heart specialist Dr. Roshan Mathew is suing Owensboro Well being Regional Hospital together with two physicians — one presently at OH and one who previously labored there. The civil go well with alleges two physicians defamed Mathew with false allegations, leading to his follow dropping sufferers and workers.

Mathew is the proprietor of Superior Cardiology of Owensboro. The go well with names the defendants as Owensboro Well being, Dr. George Dunham, and Dr. Karen Paape as defendants. Dunham works for OH, whereas Paape now works in Covington, Louisiana. The lawsuit was filed final week by Louisville legal professional Michael Merrick.

In response to the go well with, Mathew has practiced interventional cardiology in and round Owensboro for 20 years. It says in that point he was given full privileges to follow at OHRH, and people privileges have by no means been restricted or suspended.

The go well with says that Mathew joined the medical workers at OH in 2004 as a non-public heart specialist working for the Inexperienced River Coronary heart Institute. The criticism says that round 2010 OH purchased Inexperienced River, making Mathew a hospital worker.

In response to the go well with, Mathew voluntarily resigned from the hospital in 2016 to start his personal follow.

“Sure directors and hospital-employed cardiologists with this improvement, and so they started to treat Dr. Mathew extra as a competitor than as a colleague,” in accordance with the criticism.

The go well with states that for the primary few years, Mathew’s personal follow referred many surgical procedure instances to Vanderbilt College Heart in Nashville or Jewish Hospital in Louisville. It says “OHRH didn’t seem well-staffed to supply cardiothoracic surgical procedure in that the hospital contracted with locum tenens suppliers,” and that Mathew was not at all times snug referring sufferers to them.

In response to the criticism, the hospital employed Paape as a CT surgeon and Mathew started referring some instances to her, however he “continued referring advanced instances elsewhere as a result of he believed it in the very best curiosity of his sufferers to take action.”

The go well with says Dr. Andrew Poret was introduced on as one other CT surgeon and that Mathew started referring much more instances to OH, however nonetheless “sure forms of instances” he referred to “well being facilities in bigger cities.”

The go well with alleges that Mathew’s variety of referrals to Paape had been “fewer by comparability” to Poret and that “Dr. Paape expressed frustration to each Dr. Poret and Dr. Mathew about Dr. Mathew’s comparatively low quantity of referrals to Dr. Paape.”

The criticism claims that shortly earlier than Paape left OH in March of this 12 months, she had been “taking a look at medical data of surgical procedure sufferers not below her care … with a view to submit complaints about Dr. Mathew to OHRH administration, and subsequently get revenge on him for not referring sufficient instances to her.” The criticism additional alleges Paape “said on to Dr. Poret that she would get ‘revenge’ on Dr. Mathew and that she had a heart specialist supporter on the High quality Committee who would ‘take care’ of Dr. Mathew.”

“Round the very same time in early March, the High quality Committee knowledgeable Dr. Mathew that it was reviewing a handful of the instances that Dr. Mathew had referred to Dr. Poret for surgical procedure, due to alleged high quality issues that had been raised relating to Dr. Mathew’s medical judgment to refer these instances for surgical procedure,” in accordance with the go well with.

The criticism alleges Paape had referred the instances to the High quality Committee and that her statements about Mathew “had been knowingly false and communicated with malice with a view to search revenge” towards Mathew. 

The criticism alleges that the method for evaluate was “tainted” as a result of it says one of many members of the High quality Committee was Dr. Michael Kelly. The go well with says as a result of Kelly is a hospital-employed heart specialist, there’s a battle of curiosity. (Be aware: Kelly isn’t named as a defendant within the go well with.)

The go well with says that the High quality Committee and Medical Govt Committee haven’t knowledgeable Mathew “that they’ve taken any antagonistic motion” towards his privileges, however that “they’ve already determined to take antagonistic motion towards him, earlier than even purporting to observe the method below the bylaws.”

In response to the go well with, Dunham is a member of the High quality Committee and Medical Govt Committee. It says Dunham “knowledgeable sure of Mathew’s workers that they need to search for new employment as a result of Dr. Mathew will lose his medical follow in Owensboro on account of the allegations earlier than the medical workers.”

“As a result of no formal motion had been taken towards Dr. Mathew on the time Dr. Dunahm made these statements, the statements had been knowingly false. On account of these extremely inflammatory and damaging statements, a number of of Dr. Mathew’s workers have resigned from his follow,” in accordance with the criticism.

The go well with claims the alleged statements by each Paape and Dunham “have now been repeated and disseminated quite a few instances to the medical workers of OHRH, the cath lab workers, different hospital workers, the Owensboro neighborhood, and Dr. Mathew’s affected person base.” It says the harm to his affected person base has triggered monetary hurt.

Mathew is suing the defendants for defamation per se, defamation per quod, interference with enterprise relations, and denial of due course of below the medical workers by-laws. He’s searching for compensatory and punitive damages; a declaration from OHRH hospital that it violated Mathew’s rights below the by-laws; an injunction prohibiting OHRH from taking any motion towards Mathew’s medical privileges arising out of allegations submitted by Paape to the High quality Committee; legal professional’s charges and prices; and trial by jury.

Owensboro Well being Director of Advertising and marketing Brian Hamby stated the hospital is following its coverage of not commenting on pending litigation.