Iowa surgeon denies nurse’s claims of manipulated patient-outcome data – Iowa Capital Dispatch

A western Iowa surgeon is denying allegations that he supplied substandard take care of sufferers and manipulated patient-outcome information.

By his lawyer, Dr. Giovanni Ciuffo issued a written assertion this week that stated the allegations, made in federal courtroom on Could 6 by a nurse with whom he as soon as labored, are “outrageous and fully false.” He stated he’s “assured that the falsity of these allegations shall be dropped at gentle via the authorized course of.”

The allegations are a part of a civil lawsuit that Cynthia Tener, a registered nurse, filed towards her former employer, MercyOne Siouxland Medical Heart, for alleged retaliation in violation of public coverage and the federal False Claims Act. Tener was the medical heart’s director of the cardiovascular service line till she was fired final fall.

In her lawsuit, she alleges she confronted retaliation after elevating considerations relating to Ciuffo’s conduct and his therapy of sufferers – an allegation that Mercy denies.

Ciuffo’s lawyer, William J. Hale, says Tener’s declare that Ciuffo would maintain sufferers alive by way of ventilators, coronary heart pumps and feeding tubes for at the very least 30 days after surgical procedure to enhance his rankings within the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ database is demonstrably false. He stated a cursory evaluate of the STS web site signifies the group counts all deaths occurring throughout a hospitalization during which a process is carried out — even those who occurred greater than 30 days after surgical procedure.

As for the allegation that Ciuffo’s mortality charges and different outcomes had been in a roundabout way out of line with the common, the scoring issued by the STS for Ciuffo’s surgical group signifies that in all classes, the group acquired a two-star score, which suggests the outcomes had been “as anticipated,” Hale stated.

In response to her lawsuit, Tener was investigated by the medical heart for having created “a poisonous work setting” after she raised considerations about Ciuffo, and he or she was positioned on suspension on Nov. 3, 2021. Days later, she was fired.

Her lawsuit, alleging retaliatory discharge that isn’t within the public curiosity, seeks unspecified damages from MercyOne and its associates. The defendants have but to file a response within the case.