Here are four suits involving five physicians firing their former employers that Becker's has reported on in the last month:
1. Theresa Gabana, MD, a former physician at Tufts Medical Center in Boston is suing her former employer, alleging she was wrongfully terminated after she refused the COVID-19 vaccine. In her Oct. 10 filing, Dr. Gabana alleged that she was fired in December 2021 after Tufts Medicine rejected her request for a religious exemption to the hospital's vaccine requirement. Dr. Gabana, who worked at Tufts for nearly 30 years, seeks $5 million in compensation as well as another $1 million in punitive damages, according to the lawsuit.
2. Salem, Ore., radiologist David Tarbox, MD, filed a lawsuit against a Kaiser Permanente-affiliated physician group alleging he faced retaliation after bringing forth fraud allegations against two other physicians. The practice, Northwest Permanente, is the largest medical group in Oregon and southwest Washington and "strongly disputes" the allegations.
Dr. Tarbox filed a complaint Oct. 20 alleging fraudulent conduct by Joe Shen, MD, and Dorothy Pao, MD, a married couple employed by the practice until November 2022. Dr. Tarbox discovered Dr. Shen purportedly was reading exams and taking shifts for Dr. Pao, causing fraudulent claims and medical records. When Dr. Tarbox raised concerns, his superiors allegedly responded with retaliation and cover-up.
3. Two surgeons — Kevin Day, MD, and Richard Havard, MD — filed a whistleblower complaint against Corvallis, Ore.-based Samaritan Health Services. The suit comes almost a year after their termination led to the sudden closure of Samaritan Plastic, Reconstructive & Hand Surgery.
The suit alleges that Samaritan's "top-heavy" and "profit-focused" management resulted in sudden cancellations of entire days of surgery, with little or no notice in some cases, and made it "progressively more difficult to secure the resources [the physicians] required to provide timely, quality care to their patients," according to the suit.
4. Dermatologist Barbara Vail, MD, is suing Doylestown, Pa.-based Dermatology and Mohs Surgery Center and its parent companies, along with two executives, alleging wrongful termination. According to the lawsuit, Dr. Vail sold her practice, Dermatology Specialists of Warrington (Pa.), in March 2021 to Anne Arundel Dermatology Management and continued to work at the practice. Following the acquisition, the suit alleges, AAD began firing or forcing out her staff and "replacing them with inexperienced and poorly trained medical assistants." Dr. Vail then complained to AAD about the lack of experienced staff, and AAD allegedly responded by investigating and eventually firing Dr. Vail.