Fellowship program director interfering with credentialing

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Indeeded

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Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but hoping to get some input from physicians or others on the "business" side of medicine, specifically the final processes involved in physician credentialing at a large medical center.

I signed a contract for an attending position at a large community-based academic center in 12/2015, with my planned start date to be in 07/2016 (now). Everything was going great until my very last shift of fellowship last week, when I got an alarming call from my soon-to-be boss (division head) stating that my fellowship program director was interfering with my credentialing process at my new job. She had been sent a routine form where she was supposed to check a box "yes" or "no" when asked "Would you recommend this person for a staff position at this medical center?" She checked "no". This automatically leads to a secondary review of my entire file. My new boss called her to inquire as to why she did this, and of course she stated she would change the form, but the damage was done (keep reading).

I looked at my reviews, and she'd added innumerable negative comments/reviews of me during the last few weeks of fellowship (basically so that I would not notice them). In addition, this fellowship program director is MARRIED to the division chair for my program, and I am pretty sure that he also added negative comments as well.

Not really sure where to go from here. The division chair (my program director's husband), was one of my original LOR authors, so I assume part of what he'd said got me my job. I feel that he has now done a 180 at the request of his wife. This all just wreaks of nepotism and unethical behavior.

The issues between myself and the program director are numerous, but essentially came down to her treatment of the fellows as nurse practitioners and her complete lack of support for the fellows throughout fellowship.

My final credentialing meeting is coming up, and I am ready to supply the committee with a complete list of "secondary references" that can attest to my true character and performance.

Any other advice?

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Any ideas why they would do this to you?
 
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Any ideas why they would do this to you?

A former attending there who has since moved on describes the PD as having a "professional borderline" disorder, where every year she qualifies each fellow as "best ever" or "the worst". I clearly fell into the second.

But her specific issue to me was that I never submitted to her mandate that fellows essentially function as nurse practitioners within the unit. I, at times vocally, fought for the educational value of the fellowship, and I never gave up. The program did not fill in the match this year, and I suspect some of it is punishment for that. But I actually had no contact with any of the fellowship candidates this year. I didn't want to bias them.

The PD has a recent history of "black balling" fellows during their job hunts.
 
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A former attending there who has since moved on describes the PD as having a "professional borderline" disorder, where every year she qualifies each fellow as "best ever" or "the worst". I clearly fell into the second.

But her specific issue to me was that I never submitted to her mandate that fellows essentially function as nurse practitioners within the unit. I, at times vocally, fought for the educational value of the fellowship, and I never gave up. The program did not fill in the match this year, and I suspect some of it is punishment for that. But I actually had no contact with any of the fellowship candidates this year. I didn't want to bias them.

The PD has a recent history of "black balling" fellows during their job hunts.

yep, the picking out of the black sheep, not as rare a phenomenon as some might think

in fact, it's almost a rite of medical training passage
 
truly, a lawyer could probably threaten a suit which would be enough to negotiate a confidentiality contract and neutral to positive LOR
 
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truly, a lawyer could probably threaten a suit which would be enough to negotiate a confidentiality contract and neutral to positive LOR
Even in the non medical world saying you would not hire the person is allowed (about the only thing that is now a days) so there isn't anything a person can do about that...and in the medical world you sign a release to allow your references to say what they want...this is more of a cautionary tale of why it's important to keep your head down, stay under the radar, and get through residency/fellowship to the real world...and maybe not use your PD as a reference if you already don't get along with them...

To the OP if there is a evidence that the PD has done this before you maybe able to give that to your new place otherwise if you can get others at your fellowship to give you a good reference it may help....
 
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Even in the non medical world saying you would not hire the person is allowed (about the only thing that is now a days) so there isn't anything a person can do about that...and in the medical world you sign a release to allow your references to say what they want...this is more of a cautionary tale of why it's important to keep your head down, stay under the radar, and get through residency/fellowship to the real world...and maybe not use your PD as a reference if you already don't get along with them...

To the OP if there is a evidence that the PD has done this before you maybe able to give that to your new place otherwise if you can get others at your fellowship to give you a good reference it may help....

tell me more about lawyers and residency programs, just curious
 
doesn't it reflect a bit poorly on the PD to graduate you, but essentially suggest someone shouldn't hire you because you're supposedly a bad doc?
 
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