Court Opinion

ID: 9492087
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:31:35.292395+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:05.831547
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I would affirm the district court’s order enjoining Akron General Medical Center from limiting Dr. Sokol’s privileges or reporting the adverse action taken by the hospital to any third parties. In my opinion, this is a bad case, and our court is mistaken.
The heart surgeon has been treated unfairly by his hospital. The Hearing Committee was the only group composed of experts independent of the hospital administration. It included a distinguished heart surgeon from Boston. The Committee completely exonerated Dr. Sokol. No one has cited a single operation or a single instance in which Dr. Sokol has made a *1033mistake, not one. The lower court found, and I agree, “that Dr. Sokol should have been informed of the specific cases where he engaged in poor ease selection [for bypass surgery].” This failure fully to apprise Dr. Sokol of the specific reasons for the recommendations by the Ad Hoc Committee and the Medical Council to curtail his privileges- is a violation of Akron General’s bylaws and fails to meet the minimum requirements of procedural due process. It violates the rule of Christenson v. Mount Carmel Health, 112 Ohio App.3d 161, 678 N.E.2d 255 (1996). Under Christenson, Dr. Sokol is entitled to the specific records on which Akron General relied — in this case that would be the same records in the same form as they were given to Dr. Pine because it is clear from the record that Akron General gave great deference to Dr. Pine’s study in reaching its conclusions. Like the physician in Christenson, Dr. Sokol was “never informed of any specific act, omission, case, or record which demonstrated in any way any lack of clinical or surgical competency ...” Id. at 165, 678 N.E.2d at 258. The hospital simply does not meet the notice standard under Ohio case law by only pointing to the statistical evidence cited in the report.