Doctor at odds with hospital's conflict-of-interest policy

In the Courts. By Bonnie Booth, AMNews correspondent. Dec. 12, 2005.

What is the price of loyalty? Janet Cathey, MD, would be among the first to tell you that it can be pretty steep.

The Little Rock, Ark., gynecologist is engaged in a legal fight to keep her staff membership and clinical privileges at Baptist Health -- the largest health care system in Arkansas.

Physicians are not litigious by nature. Indeed, if most of them never saw the inside of a courtroom in their lifetime, that would be fine by them.

But Dr. Cathey said she has been left with no choice. Under a "conflict of interest" policy Baptist Health's board of directors enacted, her privileges weren't going to be reviewed. Instead, they were about to be yanked from her because her husband is one of many investors in the Arkansas Surgical Hospital, a 16-bed specialty hospital designed for orthopedic and neurosurgery spine care that Baptist Health considers a competitor.

In Dr. Cathey's eyes, having her privileges pulled was to be her reward for 19 years of loyalty to Baptist Health.

Dr. Cathey has built her practice around the hospital.

When she purchased her office, she purchased on the campus of Baptist Health Medical Center -- Little Rock. She schedules 95% of her surgeries at Baptist Health. And many of her business decisions, including those about health insurance contracts, are based on her professional relationship with Baptist Health. But her loyalty goes beyond the professional.

The Cathey family receives health care from Baptist Health. The children were born at Baptist Health, and they were treated there for the croup or when they needed stitches.