Trial lawyers, doctors team up to fight for physician's rights

While normally at odds with one another, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the medical community are joining forces to fight for a physician's right to due process-including the right to counsel-during peer-review hearings involving clinical privileges. Trial lawyers are defending an ob/gyn who was suspended from his facility over allegations of misconduct, according to Modern Healthcare (1/23/2006).

The ob/gyn, Gil Mileikowsky, claims that his employer, a Tenet Healthcare Corp.-owned hospital, targeted him for testifying on behalf of a patient who claimed that her fallopian tubes were removed without her informed consent. Mileikowsky then sued the hospital, claiming that he was denied a full hearing on his case.

Both a Los Angeles county superior court and a state appeals court have affirmed the hearing officer's decision, and the California Supreme Court has rejected the doctor's case. An appeal has since been filed with the US Supreme Court. If the case is heard, the nation's highest court will be asked to review whether all doctors are entitled to due process in peer-review hearings.