Becker's Hospital Review

57 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY Orlando Health hit with $100M defamation suit by fired physician By Ayla Ellison A Florida plastic surgeon filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Orlando (Fla.) Health Aug. 21, al- leging he was fired and made the target of a smear campaign for pointing out unethical and illegal conduct between Orlando Health and Allergan, a pharmaceutical company. Here are seven things to know: 1. In his lawsuit Jeffrey M. Feiner, MD, alleges he faced retaliation for drawing attention to some Orlando Health physicians ordering exces- sive and unnecessary products from Allergan in exchange for compensation and other benefits. 2. Dr. Feiner alleges the products were billed to patients, their health insurance, and Medicaid and Medicare, and that Allergan provided the physicians with improper gis in return. 3. Dr. Feiner claims he refused to engage in the illegal activity, and Orlando Health allegedly terminated his employment in retaliation. 4. Aer his firing, Orlando Health allegedly began a smear campaign against Dr. Feiner that was designed to hide the real reason for his termination. According to the complaint, Orlando Health physicians, at the insistence of corporate leadership, spread malicious lies about Dr. Feiner, including that he had been fired for throwing knives at patients in the operating room and threatening to kill someone. 5. Orlando Health's "false statements go to the very heart of Dr. Feiner's fitness to practice medicine, particularly as a surgeon," states the complaint. "ese false statements are designed to destroy Dr. Feiner's professional reputation and prevent both his patients and peers from questioning the abrupt, uncere- monious termination of an accomplished and popular surgeon." 6. e complaint seeks $100 million in dam- ages against Orlando Health for defamation per se. 7. An Orlando Health spokesperson told Becker's Hospital Review it denies Dr. Feiner's allegations. "We generally do not comment on pending litigation but can confirm that we strongly deny this physician's allegations and this suit will be vigorously defended," the spokesperson said. Allergan declined to comment on the case, stating that it doesn't comment on legal matters. n Hospital privacy curtains are breeding MRSA, study finds By Megan Knowles P rivacy curtains in hospitals can pose a threat to patient safety, with high percentages of curtains testing positive for methicillin-resistant Staph- ylococcus aureus, a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control found. The researchers tracked the contamination rate of 10 freshly laundered privacy curtains at a hospital in Win- nipeg, Canada. The curtains had minimal contamination when they were first hung, but curtains hung in patient rooms be- came increasingly contaminated over time. By day 14 of the study period, 87.5 percent of the curtains test- ed positive for MRSA. Curtains that were not placed in patient rooms, however, stayed clean the entire 21 days of the study. None of the rooms where the curtains were placed were occupied by patients with MRSA. The research- ers took samples from areas where people hold cur- tains, which suggests increasing contamination result- ed from direct contact. "We know that privacy curtains pose a high risk for cross-contamination because they are frequently touched but infrequently changed," said lead study au- thor Kevin Shek. "The high rate of contamination that we saw by the 14th day may represent an opportune time to intervene, either by cleaning or replacing the curtains." n EEOC sues Saint Thomas Health over mandatory flu shot policy By Harrison Cook T he U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against Nashville, Tenn.-based Saint Thomas Health Sept. 28, alleging Murfreesboro, Tenn.- based Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital violated federal law by ordering an employee to receive a flu shot despite his reli- gious beliefs. Saint Thomas Health requires all workers to receive an annual flu shot, which includes employees from TouchPoint Support Services — one of the Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital's food and environmental services providers, according to the EEOC. In 2013 and 2014, Saint Thomas Health allowed the Touch- Point employee at the center of the lawsuit to wear a protec- tive mask, instead of receiving a flu shot, due to his religious beliefs. When the employee requested to again forego the flu shot in 2015, Saint Thomas Health turned down his request and fired the employee after he refused to get vaccinated, ac- cording to the EEOC. "For several years, [Saint Thomas Health] accommodated the employee's religious belief," Delner Franklin-Thomas, director of the EEOC's Memphis District Office, said in the press re- lease. "Then, [Saint Thomas Health] refused to accommodate his religious belief. An employer should not force an employee to choose between employment and his religious belief unless doing so would cause an undue hardship to the employer." St. Louis-based Ascension, which owns Saint Thomas Health, did not respond to Becker's request for comment on the suit. n

• Cover