Male obstetricians sue Park Ridge
by Bill Fishburne
The Tribune Papers

FLETCHER, NC, Feb. 24, 2009 – Three male obstetricians whose hospital
privileges were individually revoked at Park Ridge Hospital, have filed
suit against the hospital, its parent corporation (Adventist Health
System) and 30 other physicians on charges including sexual
discrimination, violations of the Sherman and Clayton Anti-Trust Acts,
and a defamation of character and professional reputation.

The lawsuit, filed by male obstetricians Gregory Grant, Benjamin Fann
and David Hayes, states that the three OB/GYN physicians lost their
means of livelihood in 2005 and 2006 when Park Ridge eliminated male
obstetricians with private practices and replaced them with female
obstetricians, including three who work for the hospital.

According to the Park Ridge website, “In 2006 and 2007 Park Ridge
Medical Associates was joined by three female OB/GYN physicians: Eileen
Keppler, MD, FACOG; Ruchi Moore, MD; and Jeanette West, MD.”

The 30 additional physicians named are referred to as, “collectively Doe
Physicians 1 through 30, are physician members of PRMA who are actually
and/or contractually aligned with the Hospital and who participated in
or aided in the bad-faith peer reviews of the Plaintiffs that resulted
in their loss of earnings and of earning capacity flowing from the
revocation of the Hospital privileges of the respective Plaintiffs and
in their inability thereafter to be gainfully employed and/or be
privileged in other hospitals and/or health care systems as physicians.

When contacted Wednesday morning by telephone, Jodi Grabowski,
spokeswoman for Park Ridge Hospital, said that since the lawsuit was
just filed Tuesday, Feb. 24, the hospital had not had time to read it as
of the Tribune’s deadline Wednesday afternoon.

The plaintiffs allege they were individually barred from the hospital
based on one incident each in their practices that had a negative outcome.

“That exclusion of the Plaintiffs thru the usage of bad faith peer
review in the absence of any reasonable belief of said practice’s
relationship to quality health care and for the sole purpose of
obtaining market power in the Ob-Gyn arena, furthers these Defendants’
conspiracy to monopolize both horizontally (in the case of the
physicians of PRMA (Park Ridge Medical Associates)) and vertically (in
the case of the Hospital) wherein the Henderson County interstate health
care market was left with no choices in obtaining Ob-GYN services and
with substantial monies inuring to the benefit of PRMA physicians and
the Hospital.”

The suit further charges that Park Ridge intentionally barred the three
male obstetricians in order to employ an all-female obstetrics staff.

“That in depriving the Plaintiffs, male physicians (solely because they
are male), of the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for
security of persons and property and in replacing them with employed
female physicians after bad faith peer review , these Defendants have
denied the Plaintiffs their statutory right to “make and enforce
contracts (with inter alia patients, hospitals, vendors and managed care
entities)” which in this case specifically includes the enjoyment of all
benefits, privileges, terms, and conditions of the inherent contractual
relationship existing between the Hospital and the Plaintiffs as medical
staff members expressed in the medical staff bylaws.

“That Defendant Hospital thereby indulged its gender bias by besmirching
these Plaintiffs’ professional competence through bad-faith peer review
solely to replace them with employed female physicians who were
salaried, generating significant monies for PRMA and the Hospital and
possibly perceived by some women as preferable to males as Ob-Gyn
physicians.”

Another charge was that the hospital discriminated against Grant in the
conduct of their “bad faith peer review” based upon his age, having
previously wrongfully asserted that he suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease.

The lawsuit alleges that PRMA and the other defendants also participated
in Defamation of character of the plaintiffs. “It is also alleged, in
that the That the Hospital has maliciously published untrue and
defamatory statements concerning the Plaintiffs’ removal from its
medical staff to patients, physicians, its employees and to third
parties including but not limited to managed care plans, state licensure
boards, and other hospitals. That said publications disparaged the
Plaintiffs professionally in their chosen field of Ob-Gyn. That most
notably, the Hospital submitted reports to the NPDB (National
Practitioner Data Base) concerning the Plaintiffs citing expressly to
individual lapses in the delivery of quality health care to patients
inferring fraudulently that there was some reasonable concern as to the
quality of their respective practices (when in fact there was not).

The lawsuit makes no mention of the amount of damages, but asks for an
injunction ordering the plaintiffs be immediately and permanently
reinstated with full hospital privileges.

The lawsuit also seeks “an order permanently restraining the Hospital
from acting against their reinstated clinical privileges based on the
past actions taken against said privileges pursuant to the facts as
above; expungement of any and all adverse peer review, acts of
suspension, revocation and/or restriction of their clinical privileges
based on these facts from their medical staff records at Park Ridge,
from the NPDB, State Board of Medical Examiners and/or Federation of
State Medical Boards; and compensatory unliquidated damages as will
fairly compensate the Plaintiffs for their economic and non-economic
injuries caused by the Defendants; and trebled damages, pre and post
judgment interest, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and costs, and such
other relief as the court and jury deem just and proper.”