Trouble: Risk manager becomes whistleblower
A hospital being sued by its own risk manager is deep trouble, says Barbara E. Hoey, JD, a shareholder with the law firm of Littler Mendelson in New York City.
"Here's the person who kind of knows where all the bodies are buried, and they're taking you to court," she says. "You're afraid of what's going to come out of her mouth next."
Hoey defended the hospital in that case a few years ago. The director of risk management had first blown the whistle by alleging to outside authorities that the hospital had committed billing fraud and that patient safety was compromised, and then she sued the hospital after she was fired.
The hospital fired the risk manager because she did not have the trust of the physicians and nurses, Hoey says. If the clinicians had concerns, the risk manager was the last person they would approach because she was seen as disconnected and punitive. The clinical staff also thought the risk manager, even though she had a nursing background, did not have sufficient clinical knowledge to understand their concerns, Hoey says.
Over two years, every senior executive including the CEO was deposed, and the risk manager took her story to the media multiple times.
"The hospital ended up on the front page of the New York Post, which called it the hospital from hell and quoted the risk manager saying it was killing mothers and babies in the neonatal intensive care unit," Hoey says. (See the New York Post story at http://tinyurl.com/7ujojp6.) "It was very disruptive, even though we went to trial and won. Both her whistleblower claims and her firing claim were dismissed, but we still had to suffer through all of that."
A hospital being sued by its own risk manager is deep trouble, says Barbara E. Hoey, JD, a shareholder with the law firm of Littler Mendelson in New York City.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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