Fired NYU EM doctor sues

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tossaway

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If she was genuinely wronged, I hope she walks away with millions from this suit.
 
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Wow.

Only one side of the story here, would love to hear the other side. Still seems pretty damning though

Get that FIRE!!!
 
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I wish her luck. We all should stand up and litigate when we are fired unfairly.

EMP (now USACS) once tried to fire me for pointing out corruption in the organization. Their lawyer who was MD/JD advised them against doing that......probably was wise.
 
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Agree with @GeneralVeers, if enough EPs sue the soulless employers than the beatings from admin may actually soften.

If the actual story is as it's reported here, I look forward to her victory and hope she considers a 2nd career in helping other docs speak out and reclaim power.
 
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It wouldn't be a bad idea to start a non-profit that helps EM doctors who are fired to determine if they have any recourse, and assist with getting them legal defense. If ACEP was a decent organization they would allocate a small percentage of $$$ to help fund this. Of course we know they are not.
 
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GeneralVeers said:
It wouldn't be a bad idea to start a non-profit that helps EM doctors who are fired to determine if they have any recourse, and assist with getting them legal defense. If ACEP was a decent organization they would allocate a small percentage of $$$ to help fund this. Of course we know they are not.
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AAEM totally does this I think.
 
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bravotwozero said:
If she was genuinely wronged, I hope she walks away with millions from this suit.
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For added targeted pain, a judge should make them drop 50 spots on the USNWR rankings and remove the dean from the school's name (seriously, who names a school after the current dean?).
 
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GassYous said:
I think that nyu em is a strong program and that attendings support and teach their residents very well. From what I know of nyu's administration I have no doubt in my mind that they targeted outspoken trainees and that Dr Carmody's accusations are all true. The admin's pandering to "vip" patients is second to none except maybe their obsession with rankings and reputation.

www.newyorker.com

What Happened When Medical Residents Asked for Hazard Pay

At the peak of the pandemic in New York, residents at a multibillion-dollar hospital system asked for better working conditions. The ensuing debate highlighted the profession’s persistent inequities.
www.newyorker.com www.newyorker.com
The administration was very callous to the residents and fellows when they were asking for hazard pay. At the time, the major manhattan hospitals were seeing hundreds of ed patients and transfers from other overwhelmed hospitals a day. The entire patient list of the hospital was covid. They were constantly running low on sedation medications, doubling up beds in the unit, turning multiple floors into icus as well as gi suites, holding areas and some ORs. Bringing vents from outpatient centers. Outpatient doctors and surgeons rounding on covid patients.

Multiple reports of residents from other institutions dying from covid after treating patients. Residents were pulled from all rotations to round on covid units. Code blues every hour, basically everyone who was intubated died at the beginning and morale was low. Things got a little better when travelers came from all around the country, especially icu nurses.

You would think that an administration filled with doctors would be more sympathetic to the plight of their future colleagues. Nope! They are completely corporate. They see their trainees as numbers on a spreadsheet. I get it though, losing a hundred million a month is not an easy problem to deal with.

BTW who writes a six page letter like that? Get a ****ing life. That's almost as bad as hassling a teenage college student for writing an article in their campus newspaper.
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My favorite was how they accepted all this volunteer labor (PAs were at one point getting $200 an hour or so) without offering to pay the docs already in town to work. Oh and then the state wanted state income tax for the out of docs who were getting paid by their own states. Lol.
 
NYU has deep pockets so they'll probably pay her to go away and make her sign an NDA. Finding work after that will be difficult unless it's some ****ty hellhole. So she better make sure the money is good enough to retire on or enough cushion to start a new career.
 
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Kryptocoin said:
NYU has deep pockets so they'll probably pay her to go away and make her sign an NDA. Finding work after that will be difficult unless it's some ****ty hellhole. So she better make sure the money is good enough to retire on or enough cushion to start a new career.
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Envision just paid $27m. The pr harm to nyu is just starting. Then the $. She won’t settle for a small number. NYU has all the pressure on them.
 
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EctopicFetus said:
Envision just paid $27m. The pr harm to nyu is just starting. Then the $. She won’t settle for a small number. NYU has all the pressure on them.
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If I remember correctly, there was a national outcry after the Envision guy was fired. This lady's case hasn't generated that kind of publicity. Time will tell though.
 
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The very concept of a "VIP" patient is disgusting.

"You're more specialer than those other patients."
 
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I knew Carmody from her doing an ultrasound fellowship. She's very nice, and I don't see her doing the things that she is accused of. I realize that people change over time, but I just don't see it. Plus, it seems like her colleagues reported that she attested the note like every other attending does.

How many of us send home pyelonephritis that comes back 24 hours later with either positive cultures, tanking pressure, etc.? If people aren't showing signs of sepsis at the moment, it doesn't mean they have to be admitted just in case they develop sepsis. Sounds like Lennox Hill probably admitted her due to "VIP status" and not as much as being septic. I agree that sepsis isn't an observation admission. I am chair of our healthcare system's sepsis committee, and I'm intimately involved with everything from billing/coding, admissions, treatment, etc. I would be happy to testify in her behalf that sepsis -- or at least severe sepsis, which is what we're really concerned about -- isn't an observation admission.

I wish her the best of luck in her litigation. Maybe she'll get 25M out of it. I don't think her career is over though.
 
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Why would her career be over? She could be reinstated and paid hush money with NDA. NYU has more than enough payroll to cover her salary for decades to come. Advancement is another discussion.

If it were me, take the money, walk away, find a quiet ED somewhere nice to retire.

Can it be me? Please?
 
southerndoc said:
Plus, it seems like her colleagues reported that she attested the note like every other attending does.
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This one is easy to flip on an employer. They accuse a doctor of "fraud" by clicking the button that says they "saw and examined" the patient in addition to the PA, when they didn't. The doctor comes back with the fact that the EHR is programed to force everyone to do that, whether they've done so or not, because it's the routine at that facility to do unsupported "incident-to" billing to capture a fraudulent extra 15% on billing. Gotcha.

We'll see how much of her former employer's dirty laundry she can bring out into the open to force a big settlement.
 
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Birdstrike said:
This one is easy to flip on an employer. They accuse a doctor of "fraud" by clicking the button that says they "saw and examined" the patient in addition to the PA, when they didn't. The doctor comes back with the fact that the EHR is programed to force everyone to do that, whether they've done so or not, because it's the routine at that facility to do unsupported "incident-to" billing to capture a fraudulent extra 15% on billing. Gotcha.

We'll see how much of her former employer's dirty laundry she can bring out into the open to force a big settlement.
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My guess is that they will blink as there is a lot
 
A good friend who had done a lot of med exec (you know that person that would be a GREAT med staff president, but doesn't want to do it? That's her, except she got roped into it). She was telling me that suits like these (this was last year, so, before this) tend to sully everyone, like a splatter. It really depends how much dirt (NOT "if there is any") NYU can tolerate being made public.
 
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I believe it was Kansas. EP was working in a hospital that had a busy pediatric hospital, with no PEM docs at night, going down to something crazy like single coverage at night for a busy place. He complained of safety issues from understaffing, and they terminated him for it. He sued and won big.
 
RustedFox said:
The very concept of a "VIP" patient is disgusting.

"You're more specialer than those other patients."
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The truth is they often get worse care. I did my fellowship at a place that has a lot of worldwide VIPs come. We often were forced into doing so many extra things that harm would eventually befall the patient. Everybody always wants something done, but everything we do comes with risk and a price. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. But nobody does nothing for a VIP.
 
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Tipsy McStagger said:
The truth is they often get worse care. I did my fellowship at a place that has a lot of worldwide VIPs come. We often were forced into doing so many extra things that harm would eventually befall the patient. Everybody always wants something done, but everything we do comes with risk and a price. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. But nobody does nothing for a VIP.
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One of the last chapters of Ciottone's Disaster Medicine is about VIP patients. There are two types of VIPs: famous people, and those that keep society running (so, TV stars, and senators, for example). The main takeaway? You don't want the colonel operating, but, the captain, who is operating every day. This was demonstrated back in 1977 or 78: the Shah of Iran was dying of lymphoma, and came to the US, and Michael DeBakey operated on him and his abdomen. DeBakey, who had not been under the diaphragm in over 30 years. Not saying DeBakey killed him, but, he did die soon after, as his disease burden was heavy.

But, as said, nobody does "nothing" for a VIP.
 
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They also say she went to OBS due to pyelo and sepsis. They didn't say severe sepsis or septic shock. How many people come to the ER with the flu meeting sirs criteria that we send home? Too many to count.
They also in the article seemed concerned that she was given levaquin. Great coverage for pyelo, so I don't see why they made a stink about that.
A otherwise healthy person with pyelo who may have met sirs criteria, tolerating po, no signs of severe sepsis, could easily be sent home. Why would sending to obs be an issue?
 
Tipsy McStagger said:
The truth is they often get worse care. I did my fellowship at a place that has a lot of worldwide VIPs come. We often were forced into doing so many extra things that harm would eventually befall the patient. Everybody always wants something done, but everything we do comes with risk and a price. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. But nobody does nothing for a VIP.
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Do as much nothing as possible. — Samuel Shem
 
Sounds like a juicy settlement. One for the discrimination claims, but more importantly I doubt NYU wants anyone looking too closely at their attestation and billing practices based on what I’m reading. Settlement will be 7 figures. Fraud investigation would be 9.
 
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DoctwoB said:
Sounds like a juicy settlement. One for the discrimination claims, but more importantly I doubt NYU wants anyone looking too closely at their attestation and billing practices based on what I’m reading. Settlement will be 7 figures. Fraud investigation would be 9.
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It's probably already generated enough publicity that some insurance companies and perhaps even CMS might be onto it.
 
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