The Evil Hospital Administrator
I often rip on hospital administrators for many reasons. One, there are too many of them. Two, they think they are more important than they are. Three, they are getting too powerful. Want an example? Here is one from a lawsuit in California:
The suits stems from actions taken Jan. 26, 2016, when the Tulare Regional Medical Center (TRMC) board of directors voted to terminate the hospital’s medical staff organization and effectively remove the hospital’s elected medical staff officers, install a slate of appointed officers, and approve new medical staff bylaws and rules drafted without staff input.
Except for the newly appointed officers, the rest of the staff was then terminated, stripped of their rights as active members and then granted “provisional” status as part of the new medical staff which they had not applied or consented to membership with, according to a post-trial brief filed by the TRMC Medical Staff.
The replacement bylaws also contained a provision, since amended, that physicians could achieve and maintain “active” status by proving their economic value to the hospital, according to the brief—which described that provision as “basically, an illegal kickback scheme.”
All I can say is….wow. Physicians gave this healthcare system away and we continue to pay for it. This power play, by the hospital administrators at Tulare, is unbelievable. And disgusting. And evil.
We need to fight back. All of us.
Click here to get your free weekly newsletter. No Spam. No giving out of your info. Promise.)
This event at Tulare is a first to my knowledge. Being a radiologist, I am familiar with termination of radiology groups en masse, which is shocking enough, but never a whole medical staff! Keep us posted. I believe that the general public would be shocked by this too, if they knew.
I can think of an easier fix than a lawsuit. Transfer every patient in the hospital to colleagues at other facilities, walk out and turn off your phone’s and pagers. And it all would have been in compliance with the bylaws as they would have been demonstrating their economic value to the hospital.
Doug, Please keep us posted on this one!
Throughout history there have been rulers who dissolve assemblies and then remake them in their own image, or not at all. Sometimes it’s a sign of power being lost and then a last desperate attempt to remain viable. Charles of England pulled this before Cromwell took over.
British Governor John Murray, earl of Dumnore, dissolved the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1774 for the same reasons.
My hospital administration constantly tried to change the by-laws without staff approval. The first time they tried this and I did not like it I formally requested grandfather status. I heard that the hospital CEO through a fit when he was told by the hospital legal staff that since I made a formal request I was totally within my rights. Soon after multiple other staff physicians did the same effectively shutting down administrative attempts to unilaterally change the by-laws.
We have more power then we realize.