Hillside Memorial Hospital has approximately 100 providers on staff, both hospital-employed and independently employed. One of Hillside’s hospital-employed groups is Hillside General Surgery, a general surgery group.
Dr. T has recently completed his surgical residency and has decided that Hillside would be the perfect place to open his new practice as the city is geographically between his and his wife’s families. What he had not planned for was the resistance to his practice.
It took him several months to obtain medical staff privileges at Hillside Memorial, and when he complained to the CEO that he had been waiting an unduly long time, the CEO replied, “It’s not like you’re keeping patients waiting. Our group is already doing a fine job handling the volume of surgical cases in this area.” At that moment, Dr. T. realized how serious the hospital was about preventing him from taking cases away from their employed surgical group.
Eventually, he was able to obtain privileges and began his practice. A month later, he left his office and walked down the hall to meet his friend Dr. B. an Internal Medicine physician, for lunch in the hospital’s physician dining room. Dr. B was running late and escorted Dr. T into his personal office to wait while he finished with his last patient.
That’s when he saw it: there on Dr. B’s desk was an unsigned addendum to his employment contract with Hillside Memorial. The addendum stated that as part of his employment contract with the hospital, Dr. B must agree to direct all surgical referrals to Hillside General Surgery. Dr. T was stunned, but quickly snapped a picture of the addendum with his phone.
Dr. T quickly hired a lawyer whose subpoenas confirmed that that the same addendum was sent to all physicians employed by Hillside Memorial.
Write a 500-word essay that examines the following. Follow APA guidelines and have a minimum of two scholarly resources as a reference. No more than ten percent (10%) of your essay should be directly quoted material.
• Analyze the situation and determine the grounds of Dr. T’s lawsuit.
• Explain the difference between an employed physician and an independent (non-employed) physician. Does Hillside Medical Center have to allow non-employed physicians on their medical staff? Why or why not?
• Articulate which law(s)/act(s) were violated by Hillside Memorial Hospital. Provide specific information on how you reached your decision.
• Conclude what may happen to Hillside Memorial, the physicians employed by Hillside Memorial, and Dr. T as a result of this violation.