And Another One Bites the Dust
Do you want a fun Sunday read? Check out how the Board of Trustees of the Erlanger Health System, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, removed anesthesiologist Chris Young, MD, from his position as the hospital’s chief of staff and board member. He was supposedly fired from his roles in a 6-3 vote after allegations surfaced that he shared unspecified confidential information, hence violating his fiduciary duty.
Young is a really respected doc. He worked at Erlanger for more than 30 years and was a past president of the Tennessee Medical Association. “He is without a doubt one of the most widely respected physician leaders in the state,” society president Carlos Baleeiro, MD, and fourteen other doctors stated.
And here is the best part: The Tennessee Medical Association said that the board never provided any specific information about the allegations made against him.
“Even though I requested in writing to have a meeting with the board, either in private or in public session because we’re a public hospital and our meetings are public, they did not honor that request,” Young said.
“In general from a due process standpoint, and also just from a general respect standpoint … I felt like if they were really interested in the facts they would’ve listened to my side of the story,” he added.
How many times have you seen this? This is a power play to crush doctors. Plain and simple.
This is the path we are on. Correction, this is the path we have been on.
When will doctors finally wake up?
As a physician and also someone who is on my hospital board, I can attest that such termination decisions are not entered into lightly. Your article was very one sided. The physican was not removed from his position as an anesthesiologist and I would assume his other positions were unpaid. Violating confidentiality is a big deal and boards take their fiduciary role seriously. My guess is there was a pattern of misconduct.
Yeah, I disagree. Your bias is obvious. The first paragraph states what positions this doctor was fired from. Secondly, your guess of a pattern of misconduct has NO evidence behind it. But go ahead and keep punishing those “disruptive doctors” at your hospital.
Dr Young was removed from leadership of a corporate owned health system. That is the point, not whether he was fired from practicing medicine.
The removal of physicians from leadership, assumably replacing them with a “suit”, is the trend…and has been the trend for 30 years.
I agree with the author…time to reject corporate health systems.
I just typed up an almost exact response!
I’ve seen this movie before.
Your account accurately states that Dr. Young was removed as chief of staff and trustee at Erlanger. It also states that he was not given the opportunity to address the board, which seems to be true (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/erlanger-board-removes-physician-from-leadership-roles-over-alleged-breach-in-confidence.html). It does not say, however, that he was not fired as a practicing physician and will continue to provide anesthesiology services to Erlanger. He didn’t lose his income other than whatever Erlanger pays trustees and its physician leadership on top of their clinical compensation.
This is not to diminish the larger message, that due process seems to have been left at the curb. But I did initially get the impression that Dr. Young had been entirely removed at Erlanger.
I believe the point the writer is making is that physicians are being removed from positions of authority with voting rights in hospital systems. There is a deliberate and systematic removal of the physician voice in administration of hospital systems.
The first paragraph, I thought, was pretty clear.