Lurie v. Mid-Atlantic Permanente Med. Group, P.C. (Summary)

DISRUPTIVE PHYSICIAN

Lurie v. Mid-Atlantic Permanente Med. Group, P.C., No. 06-01386 (RCL) (D.D.C. May 31, 2011)

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia declined to reconsider its ruling in favor of a physician group that had fired a disruptive doctor. The doctor sued the physician group for wrongful discharge, breach of contract, and employment discrimination. According to reports from his supervising physician, the doctor had engaged in “a crescendo of abusive behavior.” The doctor claimed that he was simply voicing his concerns about the quality of care at the hospital where he was stationed. In response to the doctor’s disruptive behavior, the physician group took progressive steps to ameliorate the situation, including placing the doctor on a performance improvement plan and transferring him to another hospital in Maryland. When the behavior continued after several transfers, however, the group terminated his contract. The district court initially found in favor of the physician group. In particular, the court dismissed the wrongful discharge claim because the doctor had not based it upon a clear public policy discussed in a constitution, statute, or regulation. Immediately afterward, the doctor claimed a new Maryland case had changed the law in his favor and asked the court to reconsider its ruling. The district court declined to reconsider, stating that the new Maryland case did not affect its ruling because the issues had all occurred at D.C. hospitals. Similarly, the court declined to hear the doctor’s new claim under Maryland’s Health Care Worker Whistleblower Protection Act, stating that it did not apply and that creating a similar remedy in D.C. was within the scope of the legislature, not the courts.