UVA PHYSICIAN ALLEGATIONS CAST DOUBT ON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL RANKINGS - THE DAILY PROGRESS REPORTS
*** 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 each of you in bringing forth your evidence in the safest way possible.
No one should feel pressured to meet with Williams & Connolly’s attorneys without having your own legal representation present.
If you are contacted by Williams & Connolly or wish to initiate contact with them, your UVA School of Medicine Faculty Senate Representatives and CSEC Leadership can provide information on how other faculty members have approached receiving advice, preparing for discussions, and ensuring appropriate protections, given the seriousness of these matters.
You can also email FightingForUVAHealth@proton.me for more information. ***
THE DAILY PROGRESS REPORTS — UVA PHYSICIAN ALLEGATIONS CAST DOUBT ON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL RANKINGS
By Emily Hemphill
October 12, 2024
The Daily Progress article above contains illuminating and disconcerting information and we encourage everyone who is concerned about UVA Health to read it in full.
We highlight a few excerpts here…
For the fourth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report has named University of Virginia Children’s Hospital the top children’s hospital in the commonwealth.
But this year, the accolade has been awarded amid allegations that the UVa Health System has been fraudulently billing patients, mistreating employees and retaliating against those who speak out against administrators.
“When I hear things like, ‘All these hospitals, their quality scores are great,’ there’s no way,” said a former UVa Health executive, who spoke with The Daily Progress under the condition of anonymity. “There is absolutely no way that that can be true, because to drive that kind of result requires you to focus on the very things that he destroyed.”
The executive was referring to their former boss: UVa Health CEO Dr. Craig Kent. Kent, along with UVa School of Medicine Dean Dr. Melina Kibbe, was the subject of a Sept. 5 letter of no confidence signed by 128 hospital physicians and medical school faculty. The five-page document claims the pair have committed a number of “egregious” and illegal acts and created a toxic work environment that has reached the point of endangering patients.
Since the letter was delivered to UVa administrators, The Daily Progress has interviewed more than a dozen former and current hospital executives and physicians as well as medical school faculty members, all of whom agreed to speak under the condition of anonymity and all of whom agreed that UVa Health’s top priority has become “money and reputation.”
A significant share of those problems detailed in the letter of no confidence focused on a “culture of fear and retaliation” which the signatories claim Kent and Kibbe created at UVa. The pair are accused of wielding promotions — as well as explicit threats — as a means to retaliate against those who challenged them.
Over the course of investigating the claims of fraud at the hospital, The Daily Progress interviewed multiple subjects who expressed their misgivings regarding the authenticity of the metrics UVa Health administrators submit for rankings.
“If there’s quality data going out there … there’s no question that he would have been just fine with them manipulating [the data],” they said.
They recalled a meeting they were a part of during the pandemic to discuss the amount of financial aid the state was allocating to hospitals. Money was distributed based on the number of patients each center was treating. According to the former executive, when Kent was told at the meeting that another, slightly larger, health system in the commonwealth would be receiving more funds, his response was: “I don’t care what you have to do to work the numbers. We are going to get as much money as [the other hospital] is.”
If the 128 signatories had hoped that their pleas would spur UVa President Jim Ryan or the school’s governing Board of Visitors to immediately address the allegations, they were swiftly disappointed. Ryan’s initial response was to dismiss the claims as “generalized and anonymous claims of wrongdoing” from a small group of disgruntled faculty, typical of any organization.
Though he asserted that Kent and Kibbe are the reason the university health system “is in the best shape it has ever been in,” Ryan and the board did bring on the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Williams & Connolly, recognized as one of the world’s premier litigation firms, to probe the complaints.
Despite assurances that the firm would be conducting an independent review that could clear the air, the university has already said the findings will not be released to the public.
Read the entire article: THE DAILY PROGRESS REPORTS — UVA PHYSICIAN ALLEGATIONS CAST DOUBT ON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL RANKINGS.
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.