We have written several blog posts about how hospitals keep bad surgeons working for them, even if the surgeons are causing injury and death to patients. The facts seems to be that hospitals need “rain-maker” surgeons – even bad ones. The latest example is Catholic Medical Center in New Hampshire, which recently “retired” a star cardiac surgeon after public reporting of the number of malpractice cases settled by the surgeon.

The surgeon, who worked at the hospital for three decades, was reported by the Boston Globe to have settled more surgical death cases, over many years, than any other U.S physician. The newspaper reported that “the facts are blunt and chilling: [the surgeon] has one of the worst surgical malpractice records among all physicians in the United States.”

At one point, while the surgeon was undergoing treatment for cancer, he returned to the operating room where, in just five weeks, three of his patients died and two were severely injured. Other hospital staff referred to this as “the summer of death.” Over the years, physicians had repeatedly warned the hospital about the poor quality of the surgeon’s care and the resultant harm to his patients. Yet their complaints were not acted on.

Why would a hospital keep a physician on staff with such an abysmal record of injuries and deaths to its patients? The answer is a simple one: hospitals need physicians to perform complex and expensive surgeries at their facilities because it makes money for the hospital. 

There have been a number of similar reports recently. In one blog post, we wrote of a self-publicizing doctor in New Hampshire (and Catholic Medical Center, again) who had a kick-back scheme in which he referred many patients to a hospital which, in turn, benefited him in other ways. 

There was a recent case in Walla Walla in which the local hospital kept two spine surgeons on its staff for many years, despite repeated complaints of unnecessary spine surgeries that caused great injury to patients. In that case, the State of Washington sued the hospital, which settled for millions of dollars, based on the fact the state’s Medicaid program was billed for such surgeries.