OUR DOCTORS AND NURSES AT UVA HEALTH NEED YOUR HELP
Please look into the circumstances that compelled us to create Parrhesiastes in good faith to:
Protect our doctors and nurses at UVA Health.
Provide a forum for honest discussion related to reports of mismanagement.
Draw attention to serious matters that could inflict lasting damage on UVA Health and seriously harm UVA Health patients.
Strengthen and preserve a university, medical center and community that is of great value and importance to us.
Please ask your doctors and nurses about anything you read here including how they have been treated by UVA Health senior leaders.
Then ask yourself, are you inclined to believe your doctors and nurses?
And if you don’t trust your doctors and nurses to tell the truth about how they have been treated by UVA Health senior leaders, why would you believe them to tell the truth about your most personal and critical health matters?
Your doctors and nurses at UVA Health have been ringing alarm bells for over a year…
When will the University of Virginia Board of Visitors answer their call?
The initial Parrhesiastes’ posts have received thousands of views and resulted in direct messages sharing our concerns.
We continue to hear more serious questions about UVA Health regarding:
Clinical & Patient Safety issues
Professionalism & Education issues
Billing & Finance issues
While anonymous, we have been assured that the concerns expressed here are shared in one way or another by hundreds of faculty members at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Our doctors and nurses are not willing to use their names out of fear of retaliation by UVA Health senior leaders. So they have asked us to ask you…
1. Is it true that some UVA Health senior leaders have said anonymous comments mean nothing and come from a small number of disgruntled doctors and nurses?
2. Is it true the same UVA Health senior leaders have told UVA School of Medicine Faculty they will not address anonymous concerns?
3. Do the same UVA Health senior leaders believe anonymous concerns delivered via the following links on the University of Virginia website also mean nothing?
To inform the University of any unethical behavior or policy violation…
The University of Virginia’s Academic Division and Health System, including UVA Physicians Group (UPG), have provided this website for you to securely and confidentially report unethical behavior and policy violations...
(JRI) is the University's online system for reporting:
• Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment and Violence
• Bias and Discrimination/Harassment
• Hazing
• Clery Act Compliance (by CSAs)
• Interference with Speech Rights
• Youth Protection
• Preventing & Addressing Threats or Acts of Violence
Do other senior leaders throughout UVA also believe anonymous concerns carry no weight or is this attitude limited to some UVA Health senior leaders?
We are Concerned Citizens of Charlottesville and Patients of UVA Health who are troubled by what we have heard from many UVA Health professionals over the past year.
These professionals are not only our doctors and nurses but also our friends, family and neighbors. They are not willing to use their names out of fear of retaliation by UVA Health senior leaders. We believe our community should value and protect its health care workers who have dedicated their lives to helping UVA patients.
We have been advised by counsel that merely asking these questions could result in UVA Health senior leaders taking the following actions against their patients and concerned members of their community:
Send threatening cease and desist letters in an attempt to silence these questions.
Retaliate against the UVA Health professionals who are speaking out.
Deny the validity of any of this.
We’re dismayed by all of this. Can you help us understand if this is true and if so…
What is going on at UVA Health?
A Parrhesiastes is someone who speaks the truth in a clear and honest way…
It's about the courage to speak one’s mind even when it's difficult or unpopular…to prioritize truth over social niceties or personal gain...
But speaking the truth can be dangerous. A Parrhesiastes understands this risk and is willing to face the consequences, from social disapproval to vindictive employers or even violence...
Because ultimately Parrhesiastes act out of a sense of duty.
They believe speaking the truth is necessary for the greater good and to protect the people and institution they love.
Anonymous concerns have long allowed those afraid of retaliation to speak truth to power in the public space. Our founding fathers, like Thomas Jefferson, used pseudonyms so that leaders would face arguments and issues on their true merit without being able to discredit individual authors who could be written off for their politics (disgruntled employees?). Such authors also feared that audiences may question the sincerity of their motivation (fame? publicity? power? the jobs of UVA Health senior leaders?) if they signed their name. Sometimes they were worried about their safety—indeed, state universities do operate with relative impunity, having the backing of multibillion dollar endowments and government resources.
That is an extreme power differential unless the affected groups have similar resources. Thus, it would be all that much more unfortunate if UVA Health senior leaders write off their doctors and nurses as a disgruntled or untalented few, particularly to their Board or community donors.
Consultants have made a serious error in encouraging academic health systems to achieve “alignment with senior leadership.” Alluding to “peer best practices” can lead to conformity, especially if grading things that are undeniably subjective (ASPIRE?). Groupthink can be a form of tyranny in organizations that harms them in the long run.
Anonymous criticism can be essential and productive, especially if recipients genuinely have their own behavior and decisions to blame for people’s desire to be anonymous.