Hospital: Why didn't doctor file complaint?
The Daily Inter Lake
Kalispell Regional Medical Center spokesman Jim Oliverson provided the Daily Inter Lake with a written response from the hospital to Dr. Scott Rundle's lawsuit, asking why the physician didn't use the hospital's internal peer review process to raise his concerns while practicing at the hospital.
Although the medical center isn't named as a defendant, the lawsuit against Silvertip Emergency Physicians makes accusations about practices which allegedly took place at the hospital. Silvertip contracts to provide emergency room physicians to the medical center.
"KRMC does not comment on specific allegations in pending litigation, but we believe it is important for the community to understand several key principles," the response said.
The statement said the hospital has a confidential, internal hospital peer-review process to consider issues raised "by or about practitioners," which follows accreditation standards.
"We have learned that, across the country, physicians whose contracts or privileges are terminated frequently bring suits with allegations similar to those made in this complaint. We are baffled as to why, if Dr. Rundle truly thought that there was merit to his contentions, he chose to sit on them so long. Why did he not bring those contentions forward to the medical staff, board or administration while he was practicing in our Emergency Department?"
The statement expressed disappointment that Rundle "has chosen to make such public accusations" without first bringing them forth for investigation at the time they occurred.
According to the statement, Kalispell Regional Medical Center has retained legal counsel "to evaluate what recourse we have to correct the untrue factual allegations that implicate KRMC or HealthCenter Northwest, to restore trust by the community that might have been harmed by what we believe to be untrue and irresponsible allegations."
Calling such allegations "extremely rare," the hospital statement said that they are taken seriously and handled "reasonably and fairly."
"Sometimes employees who think they were not treated properly discuss those issues with their peers. Such discussions may lead to information becoming more widely known. Discussions or sharing experiences among complainants and others do not violate any laws, nor would the hospital be able to control that."
Hospital officials said that management and physician leaders and any physician groups that hold hospital contracts have a responsibility to evaluate all complaints.
"We do try to encourage physicians who have issues to obtain counseling and other professional help, as a general approach," the statement said.