WARSAW — A preferred physician whose contract was terminated is now suing Wyoming County for $24.7 million in damages. Dr. Paul Mason filed a lawsuit final week in opposition to Wyoming County, Wyoming County Neighborhood Hospital and the Wyoming County Neighborhood Well being System, together with city supervisors Becky Ryan, Bryan Kehl, and Jerry Davis.
Mason is accusing the defendants of defamation, retaliation and breach of contract.
Mason is an orthopedic surgeon whose contract with WCCHS was terminated in early January 2022. His dismissal left a lot of Wyoming County in an uproar, with a number of offended residents and hospital workers packing a hospital Board of Managers assembly, together with the county Board of Supervisors conferences that adopted.
Though his apply, Buffalo Bone and Joint Surgical procedure, has now contracted with Bertrand Chaffee Hospital in Springville, Mason’s departure from the WCCHS stays intensely controversial.
Mason started working on the WCCHS in 2014, when the system established its orthopedic clinic. He carried out greater than 300 surgical procedures there earlier than becoming a member of the system full-time in December 2017.
Mason has been cited by many as a key determine in turning the hospital’s once-problematic fame round, and changing it with one among excellence, though the ability’s fame is once more troubled.
The controversy started with the hiring of former CEO Joseph McTernan of the WCCHS. McTernan died in January 2022, shortly earlier than Mason’s dismissal.
In January 2020, Mason had his first assembly with McTernan over lunch and mentioned the brand new working room mission and why Dr. Mason believed it was vital to the hospital’s success.
“Shortly after assuming the position of WCCH CEO and on behalf of WCCH, McTernan started to publicly voice displeasure with the contract between WCCH and BBJ … stating, amongst different issues, it was a ‘sweetheart deal’ given to Dr. Mason by the previous CEO, ‘the Mason contract was unlawful,’ and that Dr. Mason was not worthwhile and dropping cash for WCCH,” the criticism states. “These claims by McTernan had been in stark distinction to previous pronouncements from the prior CFO, COO and CEO that by Dr. Mason’s efforts WCCH had elevated orthopaedic income and was attaining further revenue for the hospital.”
Along with his energy, McTernan allegedly started to isolate and embarrass Mason and BBJ by:
n Eradicating Dr. Mason from e-mails and different correspondence with WCCH’s staff on the senior and govt ranges and precluding him from attending conferences of senior administration.
n Failing to supply related information regarding in-system referrals to BBJ and Mason.
The referrals had been obligatory for each his apply and the hospital to make sure in-system referrals had been maximized to the fullest extent permitted and to interact in income projections.
n Refusal to supply or permit workers to supply monetary and operational info to BBJ and Mason obligatory for them to hold out his position of Chief Medical Officer, in addition to managing director of BBJ.
n McTernan independently ready monetary experiences purporting to point out Mason’s profitability in a detrimental gentle through the use of a unique methodology than had traditionally been used and developed by the hospital’s chief monetary officer, and agreed to by the earlier COO and CEO.
“Upon info and perception, in the course of the first quarter of 2020, McTernan falsely complained to others about how a lot cash BBJ and Dr. Mason had been purportedly dropping and took efforts to arbitrarily revise prior years inner monetary statements to assist his false rivalry,” the lawsuit states. “By means of instance, because of his manipulation of WCCH’s monetary statements, the reported web revenue of $1,499,568.00 for the orthopaedic division in 2018 was modified to a web revenue of solely $97,697, and in 2019 a web lack of $315,120.”
That resulted in an Govt Committee assembly on the Wyoming County Agriculture Heart on April 23, 2020.
In the course of the assembly, Don Eichenauer — McTernan’s predecessor as CEO — was invited to supply enter to the accuracy of McTernan’s statements. On the finish, the inaccuracies had been highlighted with the committee members noting that “They had been proud of Dr. Mason’s efficiency, that they had no complaints, and there have been no issues”, in response to courtroom paperwork.
The Nov. 20, 2020 Incident
On or about Nov. 20, 2020, a WCCH doctor was noticed by working room workers and a nurse supervisor performing procedures on sufferers in what seemed to be an intoxicated or impaired situation, in response to the lawsuit.
The doctor was allegedly noticed as “being withdrawn, eyes closed, showing dizzy, uncoordinated, having glassy/pink eyes, and appearing confused and dropping devices.”
“Throughout these surgical procedures, working room workers and the anesthesia supplier who witnessed the incident expressed concern to the director of surgical providers that the surgeon was unable to carry out duties with out important affected person threat,” the criticism acknowledged. “After evaluating these considerations, the director of surgical providers canceled all remaining surgical procedures by that surgeon for that day.”
McTernan and others comprising the administration of WCCH, together with Medical Director Mandip Panesar, had been notified of the incidents in accordance with WCCH’s incident reporting coverage.
The incident ought to have been investigated by the director of surgical providers and Medical Govt Committee in response to WCCHS coverage, in response to the lawsuit. However McTernan allegedly curtailed the investigation and it was taken over by hospital administration.
That’s when, with none recognized investigation, interviews or request for written statements from the working room workers, workers and the director of surgical providers had been instructed the surgeon at challenge had been cleared and was permitted to return to supply surgical providers to sufferers.
Resulting from his position on the Medical Govt Committee, Mason was reached out to by workers and medical suppliers expressing their considerations and the potential threat to sufferers in gentle of their perception that the incident was not correctly dealt with, and the surgeon was allowed to renew surgical procedure previous to a correct investigation of the incident being carried out.
In consequence, Mason tried to specific these considerations to the administration, medical director, Medical Govt Committee, and finally the Board of Managers.
The senior hospital administration allegedly criticized the working room workers and nurse supervisor for his or her experiences and the documenting of the suspected impaired doctor, and McTernan and Panesar had been upset with and criticized Mason for his position in insisting that the incident involving a suspected impaired doctor be dealt with in accordance with WCCH coverage and New York Division of Well being necessities, in response to the lawsuit.
“After makes an attempt to deal with the Nov. 20 incident by the outlined course of at WCCH proved ineffective, Dr. Mason reported the matter to the New York State Workplace of Skilled Medical Conduct (OPMC), as required of licensed medical professionals, who’re required to report any incident of potential doctor misconduct they grow to be conscious of,” the criticism stated. “In retaliation for the report made by Dr. Mason to OPMC, McTernan started to retaliate additional in opposition to Dr. Mason and took actions to disparage his skilled fame, together with falsely accusing Dr. Mason publicly of threatening to hurt Panesar’s household and started weaponizing WCCH’s Medical Govt Committee by placing stress on its committee members to signal a letter crafted by the medical director threatening Dr. Mason’s continued engagement by WCCH.”
McTernan additional allegedly retaliated by having the Medical Govt Committee take away Mason from the committee and eradicating Mason’s title as CMO, and changing it with the restricted title, standing and duties of CMO of Orthopaedic Companies.
Mason is submitting for 4 causes of motion.
The primary is defamation by the defendants. The lawsuit alleges false statements had been made deliberately, recklessly, and with complete disregard as to the reality, with data that very same had been false.
The false statements had been allegedly made to impugn and disparage Mason’s skilled fame and professionalism; to falsely justify the illegal termination of Buffalo Bone and Joint; and to forged them in a false gentle with colleagues, the Western New York medical group, sufferers, and the general public.
“Utterance of the false statements has uncovered Dr. Mason and BBJ to public hatred, contempt, ridicule, shame, and lack of enterprise {and professional} fame and represent defamation per se underneath New York regulation,” the lawsuit states.
In consequence, Mason and BBJ are in search of damages to be decided in a trial, however they consider to be at the least $1 million along with curiosity, attorneys’ charges, and punitive damages.
The second explanation for motion is for the breach of contract in opposition to WCCH, stating Mason and BBJ always faithfully carried out their contractual obligations.
“In falsely terminating the settlement for purported trigger, WCCH breached the settlement,” the lawsuit states. “WCCH’s solicitation of BBJ staff for employment breached the settlement.”
The third explanation for motion is for retaliation by the WCCH.
In reporting the Nov. 20 incident, Dr. Mason was engaged in a protected exercise, in response to the lawsuit. It additional states the termination of Mason and BBJ had been in retaliation for Mason having reported the Nov. 20 incident to the New York State Workplace of Skilled Medical Conduct, as he was required to do.
That led to the fourth explanation for motion, the violation of New York Labor Regulation § 740 — the Whistleblower Act. The complainant states McTernan took motion to punish Mason for reporting the incident to OPMC.
“This included, however was not restricted to disparaging his skilled fame, falsely accusing Dr. Mason of threatening hurt to Panesar’s household and weaponizing WCCH’s Medical Govt Committee by placing stress on its committee members to signal a letter crafted by the Medical Director threatening Dr. Mason continued engagement by WCCH,” the lawsuit stated.
The second, third and fourth explanation for actions had been searching for damages to be decided in a trial, however the lawsuit is naming at the least $2.9 million in misplaced income and $5 million in misplaced future wages as a CMO, along with curiosity and attorneys’ charges for every explanation for motion.
The Day by day Information reached out to Becky Ryan, Bryan Kehl and Jerry Davis, all of whom had been individually named as co-defendants within the criticism.
Ryan is chairwoman of the county’s Board of Supervisors and Davis is the previous chairman. They, together with Kehl, have additionally served or are serving on the WCCHS Board of Managers.
The newspaper additionally reached out to the WCCHS for remark.
Ryan declined to remark. No different responses had been acquired by press time Tuesday afternoon.