Medical staff members help end problems at California hospital

Physicians and hospital administrators say their collaboration led to the facility's settlement over alleged illegal kickbacks.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. Feb. 25, 2008.

Some California physicians say a recent settlement between a Ventura hospital and the Dept. of Justice underscores the importance of a self-governing medical staff.

Community Memorial Hospital in December 2007 agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that the facility gave improper gifts, loans and payments to some doctors in exchange for Medicare patient referrals. No doctors were named in the agreement, and the hospital did not admit any wrongdoing. Community Memorial administrators voluntarily disclosed the financial relationships, which took place under the hospital's former leadership.

Doctors say the settlement sheds light on previously strained relations between the medical staff and hospital board that prompted a legal dispute in 2003. It also signals a new era of cooperation between the two sides, said John V. Hill, MD, a former medical staff chief who spearheaded the doctors' battle.

He said the agreement addresses a number of concerns the medical staff had, but was unable to voice.

"This reflects the new mind-set the board had after [the dispute], and to the hospital's credit [medical staff members] were included in ferreting this out," Dr. Hill said.

Tom Curtis, the medical staff's former attorney, said, "The discovery of the underlying abuses ... or even the self-disclosure would not have ever come about had not this medical staff taken the action they did" to restore self-governance.

The medical staff sued the hospital after it instituted a "code of conduct" that gave the hospital board authority to discipline doctors who did not measure up to standards. The hospital also adopted a policy that took away medical staff members' voting rights and ability to hold leadership positions if the doctors had a financial stake in a competing facility.