WHY DID THE UVA BOARD OF VISITORS REFUSE TO FUND LEGAL REPRESENTATION FOR OUR DOCTORS?
*** If you are employed by UVA Health, the UVA School of Medicine, and/or the UVA Physicians Group, your colleagues have engaged legal representation to support all of you in bringing forth your evidence in the safest way possible.
No one should feel pressured or obligated to meet with Williams & Connolly’s attorneys without having your own legal representation present.
Please contact your UVA School of Medicine Faculty Senate Representatives, your CSEC Leadership, email FightingForUVAHealth@proton.me or message us for more information. ***
Disappointingly, the UVA Board of Visitors has refused to pay for our doctors’ legal representation while encouraging them to voluntarily cooperate.
Even though UVA Health generates billions of dollars of revenue as a result of our doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals’ labor and…
Even though the UVA Board of Visitors has hired one of the most prestigious and powerful law firms in the world that specializes in criminal defense to investigate the issues caused by UVA Health Leadership.
This suggests they have the resources.
At the same time, the UVA Board of Visitors has told our doctors to trust the process of the independent investigation. To be clear, it is not an independent investigation. It is an internal investigation, and the UVA Board of Visitors has hired an external resource to conduct it.
Nevertheless, if our doctors are intimidated at the thought of meeting with Williams & Connolly without their own legal representation present, they have to pay for it themselves.
Do you think that if the roles were reversed, the UVA Board of Visitors and UVA Leadership would meet with outside counsel without their own legal representation present?
In the spirit of continuing to advise our doctors — our family, friends, and neighbors — about the PR tactics and legal maneuvers being deployed against them…
And to provide context for our responses to the concerns and questions our doctors have brought us after receiving emails directly from the Williams & Connolly attorney asking to meet with them, let’s review some key events that brought us to this moment:
9/5/24: After several years of raising serious concerns through official UVA channels, 128 physicians deliver a Letter of No Confidence in Craig Kent and Melina Kibbe to the UVA Board of Visitors.
9/6/24: Rector Robert Hardie responds in an email to our doctors, “Both the Board of Visitors and University Administration take these allegations seriously, and we are in the process of determining appropriate next steps.” The email is co-signed by UVA President Jim Ryan.
9/7/24: Jim Ryan decides an appropriate next step is to email a letter to the entire Medical School Faculty expressing disappointment in the 128 doctors while attempting to minimize the significance of their numbers, falsely referring to them as anonymous, and accusing them of harming the entire UVA Health System and UVA School of Medicine for bringing forth serious patient safety issues and matters of public concern.
9/9/24 & 9/10/24: A UVA Health System Board member publishes opinion pieces in Virginia Business and The Daily progress. He attacks the doctors — referring to 128 doctors as a small “cabal” of people — using the same talking points as Jim Ryan. He further piles on the doctors by suggesting they are violating their Hippocratic Oath and doing harm to UVA Health and their patients.
9/12/24: After six days of being smeared publicly by UVA Leadership, which includes emails sent to the entire UVA Health System, entire UVA School of Medicine Faculty, and entire UVA School of Medicine Alumni, our doctors send The Board of Visitors a follow-up letter imploring them “to get control of our leadership before further damage is done.”
9/12/24: Within three hours of delivering that letter to the UVA Board of Visitors, our doctors receive an email from a Williams & Connolly attorney informing them: “My firm, Williams & Connolly LLP (“W&C”), has been retained by the BOV to conduct an independent investigation of the concerns and allegations presented in the September 5 Letter.”
9/18/24: The Daily Progress reports on UVA’s decision to hire Williams & Connolly. The article features several quotes and background information from Brian Coy, UVA’s Chief Communications Officer. The article refers to the doctors as disgruntled, the investigation as a review, and reports, “Despite the public interest, the university has already said that the findings of the investigation will not be disclosed to the public. Furthermore, ‘The report will be delivered only to President Ryan and the Board,’ said Coy. ‘They will work with leaders in the health system to implement any needed changes.’ Those changes will likely not include the removal of Kent or Kibbe.”
10/1/24: Rector Robert Hardie sends a respectful and encouraging email to the UVA School of Medicine Faculty that Williams & Connolly’s
independentinvestigation is being conducted under the direction of the UVA Board of Visitors’ Audit, Compliance, and Risk Committee. Rector Hardie declares, “As in all matters, the Board has zero tolerance for retaliatory conduct…” and reports of retaliation will be handled directly by the UVA’s Chief Audit Executive reporting to the Board of Visitor’s Audit Committee. All of which begs the questions — What does zero tolerance mean? Who enforces it? We’re curious to see what happens when UVA’s Chief Audit Executive and the UVA Board of Visitors is made aware of the multiple retaliatory acts by UVA Leadership over the past few years — previously reported to UVA’s General Counsel, UVA’s Chief Human Resources Officer, the former Chair of the Health System Board, the UVA Provost, and UVA President.
From: Board of Visitors
Date: October 1, 2024 at 15:01:13 EDT
Subject: Response to September 5, 2024 LetterDear Faculty of the School of Medicine,
In response to the September 5, 2024 letter submitted by a group of University Physician’s Group-employed faculty members, the Board of Visitors determined to undertake an independent investigation of the serious allegations and concerns presented in that letter. The Board retained the law firm of Williams & Connolly LLP on September 9, 2024 to conduct that investigation, under the direction of, and reporting directly to, the Board’s Audit, Compliance, and Risk Committee. The Board encourages the physicians who submitted the letter to provide Williams & Connolly, in response to its requests, with additional information concerning the matters presented in the letter to aid in the investigation, and also welcomes any other individuals with information relevant to those matters to contact Katherine Turner at kturner@wc.com.
The Board is committed to conducting a robust and thorough investigation of the matters presented in the letter, and the participation and contributions of those with relevant information are critical to that objective. As in all matters, the Board has zero tolerance for retaliatory conduct and—mindful of the physicians’ concerns—the Board expects there to be no such retaliation. Any participant in the investigation can contact the Chief Audit Executive, Carolyn Devine Saint, at cds9h@virginia.edu to report such conduct, and she will bring that information exclusively and directly to the Audit Committee for prompt evaluation and response. Williams & Connolly stands ready to hear from the physicians in their own words and to gather more information concerning the allegations in the letter.
Best,
Robert D. Hardie
Rector
Despite this chaotic sequence of events, public power struggles, and UVA Leadership-backed attempts to smear our doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals, they are still eager to cooperate with the investigation and assist UVA’s Board of Visitors in addressing the serious allegations about grave HIPAA, civil, and criminal issues.
The doctors made two reasonable requests as conditions for their voluntary participation:
The UVA Board of Visitors establish a special committee to prevent further retaliation since UVA’s official channels have failed to provide that protection.
The UVA Board of Visitors funds legal representation to join our doctors, nurses, and health care professionals offering to provide evidence and information to Williams & Connolly’s attorneys.
These requests were both initially denied by the UVA Board of Visitors.
Why?
What is UVA afraid of?
Does the UVA Board of Visitors really want to learn the truth about the allegations?
In a surprising and positive turn of events, the UVA Board of Visitors extended its first olive branch in this crisis via Rector Robert Hardie’s 10/1/24 email above that offered UVA’s Chief Audit Executive as a contact for retaliation reports.
Our doctors are preparing evidence detailing multiple retaliatory acts to submit to her.
Unfortunately, the UVA Board of Visitors continues to deny funding for legal representation for our doctors, nurses, and health care professionals who wish to come forth voluntarily and provide evidence that supports the serious allegations in the 9/5/24 No Confidence Letter.
Is it reasonable that our doctors have been advised that under no circumstance should any of them be interviewed by attorneys from one of the world’s premier litigation firms without having their own legal representation present?
Does the entire UVA Board of Visitors believe our doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals seeking to help their university should incur personal legal expenses to do so?
Or is the implied message that our doctors are adversaries in these matters and are at fault for bringing forth the serious patient safety issues and matters of public concern?
And furthermore, is requiring doctors to pay for their own legal representation a consequence for speaking out? Even though it was the failure of UVA’s internal processes that resulted in our doctors stepping forward?
Does the UVA Board of Visitors want our doctors and health care professionals to cancel patient appointments and take more time away from their patients, trainees, families, and recuperation in order to properly prepare for and attend the critical meetings with Williams & Connolly’s attorneys?
Has anyone at Williams & Connolly or on UVA’s Board of Visitors stopped to think about how intimidating it might feel for our doctors to receive emails at all hours from one of the world’s premier litigation firms requesting they meet with them?
Has anyone stopped to think that while our doctors know how to make crucial instantaneous decisions that mean the difference between life-or-death, most of them have no experience with the high stakes processes of defense litigation?
Why is it so hard for UVA’s Leadership to do the right thing?
If the UVA Board of Visitors won’t pay for legal representation for our doctors, nurses, and health care professionals, then we will utilize every means possible to help raise the funds necessary to ensure our doctors have the support and peace of mind they deserve so that they can keep as much of their focus and energy as possible on providing world class patient care.
It’s the least we can do to thank our doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals for all they do and have done for us and our loved ones every day of their storied careers at UVA.
*** If you are employed by UVA Health, the UVA School of Medicine, and/or the UVA Physicians Group, your colleagues have engaged legal representation to support all of you in bringing forth your evidence in the safest way possible.
No one should feel pressured or obligated to meet with Williams & Connolly’s attorneys without having your own legal representation present.
Please contact your UVA School of Medicine Faculty Senate Representatives, your CSEC Leadership, email FightingForUVAHealth@proton.me or message us for more information. ***
What is going on at UVA Health?
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. We believe our community should value and protect its health care workers who have dedicated their lives to helping UVA patients.
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.