Sood v. Graham (Summary)

EXHAUSTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDIES

Sood v. Graham, No. 13-1911 (Iowa Ct. App. Feb. 11, 2015)

The Court of Appeals of Iowa reversed and remanded a lower court’s ruling that the director of nuclear medicine at a university medical school violated another physician’s due process rights by revoking the physician’s clinical privileges at a university-affiliated hospital.

On appeal, the director argued that the due process claim against him was not legally valid because, among other things, the physician failed to exhaust the administrative remedies available to him.

The court agreed with the director, explaining that state employees generally must exhaust other state remedies before bringing a claim for deprivation of due process. In this case, the court noted that the physician had the opportunity to take advantage of post-termination procedures under the hospital’s bylaws and under the university’s operations manual. These procedures included a right to appeal to the board of regents and to petition later for judicial review. Since the physician never invoked any of the post-deprivation administrative procedures, he had failed to exhaust his other state remedies and his due process claim was held to be invalid. Also, since the physician had access to this post-termination process, it was not necessary for the hospital to afford him an elaborate pre-termination process.