News and briefs: 'Disruptive doc' awarded $3 million for sham peer review

A Louisiana trial court ruled Christus St. Frances Cabrini Hospital to pay a physician $3 million for “performing a peer review with malice and without the known facts.” The court also said the peer review did not aim to improve the quality of care, according to an article in Outpatient Surgery.

The hospital’s medical executive committee suspended Tommie Granger, MD, at first saying it was because he abandoned a patient who died under his care. The investigation shifted focus though, concentrating on Granger’s behavior. Two nurses testified in court that when Granger arrived at the hospital to treat the patient, he was complaining and cursing, and yelled at staff members.

The hospital’s board of directors then decided to put Granger’s privileges and medical staff membership on a six-month probationary period and said he needed to get anger management treatment.

"They mandated he seek anger management treatment without ever asking him if he was mad on the day of the incident," says Granger’s attorney, Jimmy Faircloth, in Outpatient Surgery. He added that the hospital was attacking Granger for transferring cases to its rival facility.

Granger amended a lawsuit he had previously filed against his original suspension, claiming the hospital “committed a bad faith breach of its bylaws” and defamed his character.

The trial court agreed with all of Granger’s claims against the hospital.