The board of University Physicians Healthcare decided Friday to uphold an independent panelโs decision that the former head of surgery at Tucsonโs only academic medical center was wrongfully dismissed.
University Physicians Healthcare (UPH), which staffs the University of Arizona Medical Center with physicians from the UA, unanimously adopted the independent panelโs recommendations about Dr. Rainer Gruessner, officials said Friday afternoon.
They say it is now up to Gruessner to decide whether to accept the recommendations as a resolution to legal action he took against his former employers.
โWe are delighted that the board chair has publicly stated that they accept the panelโs recommendations,โ Gruessnerโs attorney, Kraig Marton, said in a written statement late Friday.
โIt is about time that UPH publicly admitted that there was no basis for any termination, and that above all they owe Dr. Gruessner an apology,โ he said.
But the two sides apparently still have to iron a few things out. Marton said he was confused by the UPH statement.
โAt one place they say they accept the recommendations, but at another place they make it sound like some kind of offer to Dr. Gruessner,โ Marton wrote. โThis is not the time to make offers.โ
UPH officials said in their prepared statement: โThe panel recommended, and UPH will accept, the reinstatement of Dr. Gruessner as a faculty member without clinical or administrative duties. In addition, UPH will pay his salary for one additional year or until he finds a new position, whichever is sooner, and retract its allegations to the Arizona Medical Board of unethical conduct by Dr. Gruessner.
โIn accordance with the panelโs recommendations, UPH is willing to apologize to Dr. Gruessner, thank him for his role in building the transplantation center at UAMC, and wish him well in his future endeavors.โ
Gruessner took over as head of the UA Medical Centerโs then-struggling surgery department in 2007 and remained on the job until last September when he was suspended amid an administrative dispute. He says the dispute stemmed from professional animosity with then-UA College of Medicine Dean Dr. Steve Goldschmid. Gruessner has long said that senior leaders retaliated against him because he questioned their competence.
Three months after suspending him, UPH fired Gruessner.
The dispute involved an accusation that Gruessner had altered a transplant records database. The independent panel made a finding that the accusation was untrue.
The quality of care that Gruessner, a well-known transplant surgeon, gave to patients was never in question by either side in the case.
โWe accept the panelโs recommendations, which clear the way for a fresh start. It is now time for all parties to move on and get back to the business of health care,โ UPH Board Chairman Steve Lynn said in a prepared statement.
In addition to Lynn, the UPH board members are Dr. Carlos Borras; Dr. Mindy Fain; UA Medical Center South Campus chief nursing officer Jean Fedigan; Dr. Michael Lemole; Karen Mlawsky, who is vice president and chief executive officer for the UA Health Networkโs hospital division; Barbara Peck; Dr. David Sheinbein; and UA Health Network CEO Dr. Michael Waldrum.
The independent panel members, all of them prominent liver transplant surgeons, were Dr. John Fung of the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Stuart Knechtle of Emory University and Dr. Sandy Florman of Mount Sinai Hospital.
That panel issued its decision about Gruessner last month following a nine-hour hearing that came about as a result of a lawsuit filed by Gruessner.
The panel said that in addition to a public apology, UPH should โthank him for his role in making UMC/UPH a world class transplantation centerโ and โshould specify that any prior discussion of misconduct have been officially retracted.โ
The panel also recommended that each party in the case pay its own legal fees. Gruessner has spent more than $300,000 and a year away from performing surgery trying to clear his name.
โThe UPH board hopes that Dr. Gruessner will join UPH in accepting the recommendations generated by the independent panel of his peers. The UPH board looks forward to his decision,โ said UPHโs statement Friday.
A new UA department of surgery chief, Dr. Leigh A. Neumayer, began her job last month.
Gruessner is credited with expanding and strengthening the UA department of surgery, and for successfully leading the team that treated then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other victims of Tucsonโs Jan. 8, 2011, mass shooting.
Under Gruessnerโs direction, the hospital offered adult and pediatric kidney and liver transplants, as well as heart, lung, islet cell, intestine and pancreas transplants. The hospital has since performed significantly fewer transplants, and has closed its islet cell and intestine transplant programs.
