Opinion ID: 172871
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Patient Mistreatment Investigation and Corrective Action

Text: The final general issue that ultimately was considered by the Board involved Dr. Couch's alleged mistreatment of several patients. The Medical Staff PA&I Committee, after reviewing medical records for several patients, and specifically the medical records of patient Corrine Klewin, requested Dr. Couch to attend continuing medical education training. Dr. Couch was already required to take continuing medical education classes in order to maintain his license to practice medicine, [23] and the PA&I Committee's specification of a particular class as a result of its review of Dr. Couch's treatment did not constitute an adverse employment action. Especially in light of the fact that Dr. Couch has admitted that it was appropriate for the hospital to look into his care and treatment of these patients. Again, even if we were to conclude that the action was of sufficient severity to invoke First Amendment protection, Dr. Couch failed to establish causation. Dr. Couch failed to establish that a majority of the members of the PA&I committee had a retaliatory motive. And the fact that an independent review of Klewin's death noted that Dr. Couch's treatment of Ms. Klewin did not focus on the main cause of her death undermines any inference of retaliation. See Deschenie, 473 F.3d at 1278. While Dr. Couch is correct that the Critical Care Committee had previously initiated a review of Klewin's death two years earlier, the fact that the hospital revisited the issue two years later, without any additional evidence, is insufficient to establish that the request for training on the cause of death of a patient under Dr. Couch's care was motivated by retaliation.