Hospital settles transplant misconduct case

A physician whistle-blower in Illinois will get $250,000 of the settlement, but is still seeking his old job back.

By Andis Robeznieks, amednews staff. Dec. 15, 2003.

A transplant surgeon who blew the whistle on alleged misconduct at the university hospital where he worked said a recent court settlement has reassured him that he did the right thing.

Almost five years after Dr. Raymond Pollak began litigation alleging misconduct within the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center's liver-transplant program, the UIC agreed to a settlement in which it must pay out more than $2 million.

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Under the settlement terms, the university also denies all allegations and maintains that its conduct "was at all times appropriate and lawful."

A graduate of South Africa's University of Witwatersrand, Dr. Pollak alleged that the UIC Medical Center misdiagnosed patients to move them up on the organ waiting list so it could meet the minimum number of transplants necessary to gain Medicare and Medicaid certification.

"Not only did the defendant defraud the state and federal governments, it endangered individuals," said U.S. States Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald in a news release. "These actions are legally and morally wrong."

In its own statement, UIC maintains that it agreed to the settlement "to avoid further delay, inconvenience and expense," and that it remains "dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of ethical conduct and technical excellence in patient care, research and teaching."

In the settlement, UIC paid the U.S. government about $1 million with more than $750,000 going to the state of Illinois, $299,000 to Dr. Pollak's attorneys and about $250,400 to Dr. Pollak himself.

Settlements were reached this summer in similar suits against University of Chicago Hospitals and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Both denied wrongdoing and paid $115,000 and $23,587 respectively.

In a separate suit, Dr. Pollak, now a professor of surgery and head of the abdominal organ transplant program at the university's Peoria campus, is seeking reinstatement to his former position as head of the multiorgan transplant program.